Welcome to your Acting for Stage and Screen course

Welcome to the Acting course community here at Staffordshire University, where our vision is:

To inspire the next generation of actor-practitioners for stage and screen by building your creative and reflective capabilities. Allowing you to establish your own practice, in a positive and inclusive environment, and giving you the freedom to pursue your goals across the creative industries upon graduation.

You will explore a variety of traditional and contemporary acting and theatre making methodologies and explore and test these out in workshop environments and productions. You will be supported by your course team, academic mentor and guest creative industry practitioners. You will learn how to act for camera and be cast and perform in a short film directed by Film and Media students. Specialist industry experts will also introduce you to key filmmaking skills including shooting, editing, motion capture, content creation, Q lab, sound, lighting etc.

Starting university can be daunting, so we want to help you prepare in advance and know what to expect.

This is an exciting and, at times, demanding course which we are sure will inspire, challenge and stimulate you. We are a friendly and informal team, and our students always become a close-knit and sociable group - we expect professional standards of dedication, teamwork and creative initiative as well as good academic standards.

The course team are excited to work with you on your learning journey at the start of what will be one of the most memorable experiences of your life. We want to make things as smooth as possible so to help you prepare for your exciting new course at university, please carefully read the information below.

Course delivery

You’ll have a class/session sizes of approximately 15, which allows for personalised learning. These will be experiential in approach, working in our performance studios on skills and techniques that you can apply to projects at a later stage.

Film, Media and Theatre contextual work will be undertaken as ‘mixed-mode’ teaching- some information imparting, then into discussions, practical activities and other approaches.

Semester one activities

Over the first few weeks, you will be taking several modules:

Performance Skills One, this will bring you up to speed with some initial approaches to acting and theatre making, ensuring we create a shared language over the first few weeks regardless of where you have come from.

Movers and Shakers: in this module you will explore classical and contemporary approaches to acting for both stage and screen. You will be introduced to the work of innovative practitioners, visionaries and dramatists who have challenged and changed existing practice and explore some of the theoretical developments of performance for screen based electronic media. You will also consider how certain styles of performance have evolved through various case study performers and practitioners working across popular screen genres (e.g., silent comedy, popular entertainment, television dramas, improvised realist cinema) from the early part of the 20th Century to the more contemporary technological changes and the live casting of theatre productions to cinema audiences across the globe.

Principles and Practices: We know coming to Uni can be tough. Over the first few weeks we will ensure you have to confidence to know how to study in higher education.

Before you start - books!

Here is a list of the books you will need to get started for the first few weeks of the academic year. Please make sure you get the correct version:

The Complete Stanislavski Toolkit, by Bella Merlin, 2014, Nick Hern Books

Inside the Rehearsal Room, by Robert Marsden, Methuen Drama 2022

The Study Skills Handbook by Stella Cottrell . London: Macmillan Education, 2019

Equipment and kit

Software link: https://staffsuniversity.sharepoint.com/sites/software/SitePages/Home.aspx

You will require:

Lightweight footwear with rubber soles for movement, avoid bulky trainers, better options are either movement specific shoes or canvas trainers.
Comfortable exercise clothes such as jogging bottoms, leggings, loose tops providing a free range of movement and comfort.
A good quality yoga mat which will get a lot of use over your three years across voice and movement sessions.

Also-

You will be working in bare feet often;
Minimal make up please for sessions;
hair tied back;
You may need to remove piercings for workshops (e.g. voice and movement) and stage productions (and cover tattoos);
No jewellery;
Good personal hygiene will be expected of you (bring deodorant!);
And we operate a ‘freedom from phones’ policy! No phones in sessions.

Course trips

During the induction week, you will meet the teaching team, engage in practical workshops and watch a production staged by recent graduates from the Department whose theatre company recently performed at the RCS!

We will also take you to the New Vic Theatre to see and meet key staff and see a live performance.

Visiting guest practitioners

Professional actors Sean O’Callaghan and Matt Holt regularly teach on the Acting for Stage and Screen course, along with professional filmmaker Anderson West.

Groups and societies

Our Student Union runs the following societies you may wish to join:

Cosy Club: book reading, theatre trips and more
Amateur Dramatics Society
Cheerleading
Pole and Aerial arts
Voice Acting society
Just Dance Society
Creative Writing Society
Staffs DJ society
Staffs TV- student led TV society
OMG Radio – a radio station for students run by students.

View all clubs and societies

Meet the team

Richard Cheshire

Senior Lecturer

I am an experienced University lecturer in Drama and a practicing freelance professional theatre director, with a strong interest in Shakespeare, contemporary manifestations of Pantomime, Musical and Popular Theatre.

Richard's profile

Eleanor Slade

Lecturer

I am a performance designer, lecturer in scenography, and a doctoral researcher. My main areas of interest are the social aspects of scenography, and scenographic / design-based strategies in collaborative theatre & performance making.

Eleanor's profile

Stephen Griffiths

Course Director

Stephen's teaching centres on broadcast programme histories and media performance, especially acting on television. His research interests include broadcast light entertainment and comedy, television drama, and children's programming.

Stephen's profile

Dr Rebecca Woodford-Smith

Associate Professsor

I’m an educator and theatre practitioner with a research background and an HE teaching portfolio. I have extensive experience and expertise as a performance-maker, focusing on interdisciplinary collaboration, physical theatre, and somatic practices.

Rebecca's profile

Alex Shenton

Technical Specialist - Theatre & Perform

Dr Mark Brown

Course Director

As well as being Course Leader for English and Creative Writing, Mark teaches on First Year core modules and American literature modules on Crime Fiction, the Contemporary, Modernism and Beat Writing. He also supervises MA and PhD students.

Mark's profile

What to expect on Welcome Week

We're so excited for you to join us on campus and to welcome you to where you matter. During your welcome week you'll be able to meet our friendly student services teams, connect with new friends, join societies, explore on-campus venues attend club nights and much more.

We look forward to welcoming you to the campus in September.

If you have any questions, please send them to richard.cheshire@staffs.ac.uk

Acting Course Team