Acting for Stage & Screen

Acting for stage and screen is a conservatoire-style training that develops the craft, discipline, and creative range needed to work as a professional performer. Acting is not simply a talent but a skill set built through sustained practice, including voice and movement work, text analysis, rehearsal process, character development, and the specific adaptations that different performance contexts demand. Stage performance requires the actor to project to a live audience, often without the possibility of retakes, while screen acting calls for a much more contained and intimate register suited to the close scrutiny of camera.

Training in both develops exceptional versatility.

At the University of Northampton you will study this three-year full-time programme, with a typical entry tariff of 120 points. You will work with acting techniques drawn from major practitioners, developing your ability to inhabit character convincingly in a variety of contexts and styles. Voice training develops clarity, range, and resonance, giving you the technical means to be heard, understood, and expressive.

Physical training builds awareness of your body as an instrument, exploring how movement communicates character and emotion. Screen craft introduces you to the specific demands of camera technique, including how to find stillness, truth, and connection in a format that magnifies everything. Throughout the programme you will take part in productions and projects that build your experience of the full creative process from first reading through to performance.

Graduates pursue careers as actors in theatre, television, film, radio, and digital media, as well as in voice-over work, arts education, community theatre, and theatre in education. Many graduates also find that the communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills developed through actor training open doors in fields such as corporate training, facilitation, and events. Further training through postgraduate acting programmes or specialist courses in musical theatre, physical theatre, or screen performance is a route taken by some graduates looking to specialise or deepen particular skills.