What you'll study
The Acting MA/MFA is an intensive postgraduate programme for actors who want to take their craft to an advanced level. At our conservatoire in Sidcup, south-east London, you’ll build your voice, movement, text and character work, and leave ready to work in live and recorded performance.
Your work starts with the core of the actor’s craft: psychological realism, text analysis and verse, and close work on Shakespeare and on classical, modern and contemporary plays. You’ll build on this through physical performance, extended voice work, Viewpoints and Suzuki, so that you can meet the demands of any production and any director.
You’ll also learn to devise and make your own work, so you graduate as a versatile actor who can perform in productions led by others and create new work of your own.
You’ll learn from working actors, directors, and voice and movement practitioners. Recent tutors and visiting artists have included members of Cheek by Jowl and the Royal Court Theatre.
The programme includes fully realised productions, led by a director, at the College or at an external venue, and a filmed digital showcase, with sessions on casting, agents and self-tape throughout.
A third of the MA is a practice research project. You choose a question about your own acting and explore it in the studio, with support from a mentor, alongside postgraduate students from across the College.
You’ll also work with new and emerging performance technologies, alongside acting for live and recorded media.
You’ll rehearse and perform in the College’s own spaces: the 330-seat Rose Theatre, in the round, the 100-seat Barn Theatre, spacious rehearsal studios and an outdoor stage. We also offer a dedicated motion capture suite.
Why choose this course
Craft first
Voice, movement, text and character sit at the centre of the programme. Working practitioners help you build on what you already do well and work on what holds you back.
Classical, modern and contemporary text
Work on Shakespeare and on classical, modern and contemporary plays builds the vocal and textual stamina that productions demand.
Ready for the industry
Sessions with casting directors, agents and self-tape specialists prepare you for auditions and representation, and the course includes fully realised productions and a filmed showcase.
A company of actors
You'll work in a cohort of actors, alongside postgraduate students from around the world, building working relationships that last beyond the programme.
MFA
Master of Fine Arts (MFA): second year
If you want to take your practice further, you can continue into a second year, the MFA, built around your own practice research. In the MFA year you will:
- develop an advanced practice research project with an academic mentor, ending in a presentation at the Postgraduate Degree Show
- take a placement with an arts organisation
- study how performance has been recorded and archived, and use archive material to make new work
- look at how performers respond to the cultural, political and social questions of their time.
By the end of the MFA, you’ll be able to place your work in its wider cultural and historical context, as an artist and researcher.
Programme breakdown
Module - Foundations (MA/MFA)
This module builds the base of your acting at postgraduate level. You’ll extend your voice and movement and work on psychological realism, text analysis and the relationship between text and performance, alongside stylised and contemporary forms. Reflection on your own practice runs throughout.
Module - Advanced Skills (MA/MFA)
This module develops your voice and body as one instrument: breath, movement, voice and emotion, applied to building character for professional performance. It includes work with new technologies and professional preparation sessions with industry professionals.
Module - Practice Research (MA/MFA)
In this module you choose a question about your own practice and explore it through performance, first with others and then on your own. A mentor supports you, and you present your work publicly at the end.
Module - Productions (MA/MFA)
This module brings your voice, movement and interpretation together in rehearsal and performance for live and recorded media. You’ll work with a director on a fully realised production, take part in professional preparation and make a digital showcase.
Module - Advanced Practice Research Project - Part 2 (MFA)
You start this project in the first two terms of your first year, alongside MA students taking Practice Research, and end those terms with a proposal for your second year. The project continues over the summer, and in the MFA year you take it forward through independent practice research, professional placements and a research and development phase, ending in a final presentation at the Postgraduate Degree Show.
Module - Performing Archives (MFA)
This module looks at how performance is recorded and archived, and how archive material can spark new interpretations of past work. You’ll use archive material to make new work.
Module - Performance Futures (MFA)
This module asks how performers respond to the cultural, political and social questions of their time, and uses research and practice to imagine where performance goes next.
Programme Specification
More about the programme
Throughout the programme you’ll benefit from:
- Performance opportunities: studio scene work, research and development projects, fully realised productions led by a director, and a filmed digital showcase
- Professional preparation: workshops and sessions with casting directors, agents, self-tape specialists, producers and other industry professionals
- Stage and screen skills: acting for stage and screen, self-tape, and workshops in new and emerging performance technologies.
Who is the programme for?
The programme is for actors who want to deepen their craft: recent graduates continuing their studies, working actors who want to sharpen their skills, and people from other fields who want to move into acting.
If your focus is making your own performance work, the Performance MA/MFA may suit you better. If it is acting for camera and digital media, look at the Acting for Screen MA/MFA.
Careers
The MA prepares you to work as an actor in live and recorded performance, and to make your own work. You’ll leave with production experience, a filmed showcase and contact with casting directors and agents behind you. The programme also prepares you for doctoral study.
You’ll also join the Rose Bruford College alumni community, working across stage, screen and audio.
How to join
Deadline to apply: 31 August 2027
Application and self-tape
When you submit your online application, you will be asked to submit an application form with digital self-tapes, of no more than two minutes each, performed in English:
- A Contemporary speech from a play (1960 onwards).
- A Classical speech from either a Shakespeare or Jacobean play.
Audition
If successful, you’ll be invited to an audition. Most auditions are online, with some on campus.
Institution code: Not applicable
Course code: Not applicable
Entry requirements
Applicants for Masters programmes will be expected to have a good undergraduate degree in a related subject area. The College also encourages applications from those without formal qualifications who may be accepted based on professional experience.
Please get in touch with us at [email protected] for information on entry criteria if you are applying from outside the UK. You can also visit our international students page.
Course Summary
Duration
13 month MA, 2 year MFA
Mode of study
Full time
Start date
October 2027
Course Type
Postgraduate Course
Course Fees (2026 Entry)
UK & Republic of Ireland Students - MA
£19900
International Students - MA
£25600
UK & Republic of Ireland Students - MFA
£25950
International Students - MFA
£36500
