MFA Professional Acting An intensive forty weeks course.
Six actors in classical costumes dancing with scarves

Full Time Professional Training Courses

MFA Professional Acting

Key Information Term Dates

Course Overview

🛈 It is not currently possible to apply for the MFA in Professional Acting. Please check back for further information later in the autumn.

This one-year MFA level course (in the UK the terms course and program are used interchangeably) gives up to 14 International postgraduate students from outside the UK the opportunity to study in Bristol on an intensive forty-week conservatoire course.

A short taster video to give you an idea of what to expect.

There is a strong emphasis on developing the actor’s voice and body and a commitment to building performance through close text work

The MFA in Professional Acting is a rigorous actor training course available to students from outside the UK who are seeking graduate-level study at a world-class school.

While the majority of Bristol Old Vic Theatre School acting courses are reserved for UK residents only, this course offers that same world-class conservatoire training to fourteen students carefully selected from North America and around the world.

The course emphasises the continued development of the actor’s voice, body and creative process, along with a commitment to building performance through a dynamic relationship with text and language. There is a substantial focus on the classical British and European repertoire, with close attention given to a practical exploration of Shakespearean text in performance.

Four actors, one female actor kneeling surrounded by two men and one woman

Industry ready

The course is designed to prepare students for the varied acting demands made within the current performance industry, including those appropriate to the recorded media. In their final term, MFA Acting students undertake a fully-mounted production, supported by professional design, stage management and costume students or practitioners.

About the Structure of the Course

This course’s structure is designed to maximise the training opportunity for MFA students while recognising the unique financial and personal demands incurred while studying abroad. With this in mind, the course is taught through an extremely intensive one year structure, utilising extended term dates, and abbreviated breaks between terms.

Please Note: The MFA Acting International course is fully eligible for US Federal Loan Funding.

Actors on stage fighting Acting

Testimonials

  • ‘The tutors are so passionate and supportive.
    It’s more of a family than a school.’

  • ‘The intensity and quality of the course means that you will get more from a year’s training than you would think possible.’

N'Dea in Henry VI
In just one year the MFA programme has given me the confidence in my artistry and the tools to work professionally that I lacked prior to my training. N'Dea Miles, MFA Professional Acting Student