Course summary

• Develop high-level skills as an actor and performer.
• Research, plan and execute professional-standard performances across stage, screen, audio and digital media.
• Create a multi-media digital portfolio to showcase your work.
• Engage with communities and challenge real-world issues.
• Take part in our final-year degree showcase festival.

Develop your flair in everything from screen acting to working with texts, audio performance, and physical and spatial practices. You’ll master production processes and apply your learning by creating and starring in your own public performances. You’ll also work with real-world briefs commissioned by external clients, helping to challenge global issues.

 How you learn

All our courses are designed around a set of key principles based on engaging you with the world, collaborating with others, challenging you to think in new ways, and providing you with a supportive environment in which you can thrive.

You’ll take part in interactive lectures, seminars and practical workshops led by creative professionals, practitioners and expert academics. You’ll also have the opportunity to work with industry partners on ‘live brief’ projects. As you develop experience, you’ll create a professional portfolio designed to prepare you for a range of careers – whether that’s in the creative industries, drama education or postgraduate study and training.

You learn through

• acting and performing
• taking part in production projects
• practical workshops
• working in an ensemble
• attending performances
• work-based learning
• independent study
• real-life projects for external clients
• interactive lectures and seminars
• extracurricular activities, including theatre and performance productions

Applied learning

Work placements

In your second year you’ll have the opportunity to undertake a short placement with an external organisation. Here you’ll use your newfound skills to address real-world challenges, connect with diverse audiences and make a difference in your community.

Live projects

We work with a range of local theatres, filmmakers, performance companies and arts organisations on live briefs and production projects. Recent industry collaborators include Sheffield Theatres, Forced Entertainment, The Sheffield Creative Guild, Theatre Delicatessen, Stand and Be Counted, John Godber and Doppelgangster.

Staff often produce performances for local and international festivals – and invite students to take part in them, giving you the chance to work alongside professionals. In recent years students have participated in Off the Shelf Festival, the Venice Biennale, The Melbourne Fringe Festival, Season for Change, and Woodland Trust’s Tree Charter. We also collaborate with Hallam’s Department of Film and Media Production to create additional screen acting opportunities for you to take part in.

Field trips

Throughout the course you'll have the opportunity to go on a wide range of trips. We're ideally located close to Sheffield Theatres and regularly see performances there. You'll also travel to see work in other cities in the north, nationwide and where possible internationally. In previous years students have attended international theatre festivals in Prague, Venice, Berlin and Paris.

Networking opportunities

We have excellent links to local actors, companies and venues – which we encourage you to take advantage of. These include Sheffield’s Equity Branch, the Making Room network at Sheffield Theatres and the Sheffield Creative Guild, so you’ll have plenty of opportunities to meet, talk with and work alongside people from the industry.

Find out more about our Acting and Performance course, from opportunities and student experiences.

 Future careers

Our graduates have gone on to rewarding and fulfilling careers in

• the acting profession
• the creative industries
• film production
• marketing, communications and media
• education
• community theatre
• creative arts facilitation
• the charity sector
• journalism
• public-facing professions such as HR, training and customer service

Previous graduates of this course have gone on to work for

• The Royal Shakespeare Company
• Sheffield Theatres
• Forced Entertainment
• Third Angel
• GrowTheatre
• Blowfish
• Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow.
• Open House Pictures
• their own companies and creative enterprises – set up with support from the university

 Modules

Module and assessment information for future years is displayed as currently validated and may be liable to change. When selecting electives, your choices will be subject to the core requirements of the course. As a result, selections may be limited to a choice between one of two or more specified electives in some instances.

You will be able to complete a placement year as part of this course. See the modules table below for further information.

Year 2

Compulsory modulesModuleCreditsAssessmentActing With Texts40Coursework
Practical
Bodies, Space, Performance40Coursework
Practical Compulsory modulesModuleCreditsAssessmentChange Makers' Festival60Coursework
Elective modulesModuleCreditsAssessmentAdvanced Acting Techniques20Coursework
Drama In Education & The Community20Coursework
Making Comedy20Coursework
Practical
Performance Lab20Coursework
Ideas Into Action40Coursework