Curious about studying Acting and Community Engagement - BA (Hons)at University of Essex? We've gathered all the key details—entry requirements, modules, fees, and more. Hear from real students by checking out reviews, or take the next step by booking an open day to explore it for yourself.
Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - BA (Hons)
Southend Campus
Full Time
Oct 2026
3 Year
###
What is the BA (Hons) Acting and Community Engagement?East 15’s BA (Hons) Acting and Community Engagement is a three-year, industry-focused degree for aspiring performers who want to work across stage, screen, audio and digital media.
From 2026-27, this course will be based at our Colchester Campus, offering bespoke East 15 studio spaces and other specialist facilities within a creative university environment set in 200 acres of parkland. ###
Why this courseThe BA (Hons) Acting and Community Engagement is a unique programme balancing intensive actor training with inclusive practice and community-focused theatre-making. It's designed for performers and theatre-makers who want to create socially engaged, inclusive theatre for, with and about communities. You’ll develop as a skilled actor while gaining the facilitation, leadership and creative tools needed to make relevant and impactful work across a wide range of community and professional settings. Alongside rigorous performance training, you’ll learn how to collaborate ethically and creatively with diverse groups, responding to real social, cultural and political contexts. Across the three years, your training progresses from core performance skills to large-scale participatory projects, professional collaborations, internships and touring work. You'll build critical thinking, production and leadership skills that enable you to initiate, manage and sustain professional theatre projects and companies. By the end of the course, you’ll be equipped to enter the industry as a versatile performer, facilitator and socially engaged theatre practitioner. Students of this course gave it an
100% student positivity score for 'teaching on my course'in the National Student Survey 2026. ###
Who should apply* Aspiring actors and theatre-makers interested in socially engaged and community-based performance * Students who want to combine rigorous actor training with applied theatre, facilitation and outreach skills * Ambitious performers who want comprehensive development of their physical, vocal and imaginative abilities * Creative individuals committed to inclusive practice and using theatre as a tool for dialogue and change * Performers seeking hands-on experience through community projects, professional collaborations and placements * Artists motivated to build sustainable careers across performance, education and community arts
This core first year acting module provides an initial training in acting theory, method and practice based on the uniqueness of the individual and the ability to change, adapt, extend, perceive, accept and reject. Students move through self-study to look outside themselves, approaching firstly improvised situations and then scripted text in imaginative and collaborative ways. By the end of the course you will know how to start work on a play and will have begun collaborative text work. You are able to begin to create a character from a text and to start the process of creating the world of the play.
For this core first year acting module students work in small groups to study scenes from a contemporary play, learning how to divide a scene into units of action, how to discover objectives for a character and use the text to discover information – about the play, its themes and characters. You workshop scenes in your groups, practising your learning from the early part of the course. By the end of this block of work you will be able to find a character’s through line and recreate work achieved during the rehearsal process.
This first year acting module provides opportunities for students to apply the introductory learning of EA131 and EA132 to more demanding textual and acting challenges. You will continue to advance your actor training through a focused approach to the theatre of a particular period. The work of this module will progress into second year when it will inform and support the devising of text.
This core first year acting module provides you with opportunities to play out the life of a character under simulated rather than ‘staged’ conditions in order to understand more fully the true meaning of the character’s experience and emotional depths.
This core full year module is one of the programme’s four skills modules. The work begins in Term One with an introduction to the anatomy of voice production. You will begin the work of acquiring good vocal habits through the use of basic vocal exercises. Techniques for direct communication with voice will be introduced. In Term Two you will develop the structures used by voice. You will work on improving articulation and explore accents and the voices of others. The work of the final term is on the vocal demands of acting, on developing clarity and power. By the end of the module you will have the ability to assess critically your own vocal capabilities and will have in place vocal exercises and a regime for future use.
This core full year module is one of the programme’s four skills modules. The work begins in Term One with an introduction to basic anatomy. You begin the work of developing suppleness and stamina. Techniques for the release of emotion in movement will be introduced. In Term Two you develop balance, co-ordinations and rhythm, linking movement and dance with acting. You learn a range of styles and carriage. The work of the final term covers preparation for physical demands and the extension of physical and dance vocabulary.
This core full year module is one of the programme’s four skills modules.
Actors spend their entire careers speaking other people’s words and trying to imagine how other people think. Contextual Studies is intended to help students to observe, to make rational sense of their observations and to put their own ideas into their own words as part of seminar discussion and in writing. The arts administration component introduces students to the principles of community theatre and the way companies work in the community. This module has been designed to enable students to integrate their subject knowledge with an understanding of sustainable development, acquiring the skills and competencies essential for addressing the urgent sustainability challenges of the 21st century.
In this second year module for Acting and Community Theatre the students will begin to develop relationships with local organisations and to explore the different influences and contexts that form the cultural landscape of communities. The module involves applying acting skills developed in the first year to performance projects devised from participants’ experiences. Students will consult with participants in their local communities. They will gain experience of working with and for a range of people from 4 years to 90 years, to develop and present community theatre performances and/or workshops. Projects will draw on observation and narrative, exploring and referring to local stories, issues and identities. Performances may take place in a range of environments such as on campus, in studios, at youth centres, schools, libraries, outdoors or online. The module may be delivered on a cyclic basis so that student groups may undertake units at different times.
This core second year module has a focus on community development, and you have opportunities to investigate equality of opportunity and community cultural development as you engage with communities in Southend, Loughton and the wider south east England region. You extend your experience of creating theatre in a range of forms, styles and performance environments. You explore a variety of approaches to physical theatre, object manipulation and outdoor performance, extending your technical and acting skills to apply to the demanding environments of street theatre. The work of this module culminates in the creation of Pandemonium – a street theatre festival for the people of Southend.
In this core second year module you examine a range of community theatre contexts of arts management. You explore the structure and management of small-scale community and voluntary sector arts organisations, and community and education departments within large organisations. The module includes preparation for work placements assessed in the final year. By the end of the module you are prepared to learn and begin to apply arts administration skills in a professional company context. Aspects of event management and production management are explored. This may include such aspects as marketing, databases, budgets, liaison with agencies, licensing, risk assessment, audience management and other aspects of health and safety, along with scheduling and logistics. The structure and purpose of organisations involved in community theatre: community, voluntary, public and relevant departments under the umbrella of larger organisations.
The emphasis in this module is on developing design concepts and technical expertise for mounting small-scale community theatre, and developing technical skill in video documentary. You explore case studies of design for performance in the community. You are encouraged to make use of found materials and low-budget solutions suitable for small-scale touring and work in community settings. You gain an understanding of the technical, legal and health and safety issues of performance in a range of scales and settings. You learn to carry out established risk assessment procedures and to propose appropriate solutions to health and safety issues.
The work of this second year Acting and Community Theatre module provides a training in voice, music movement and appropriate circus skills required for performance in community settings. Students will explore techniques of physical theatre and extended vocal work. The work of this module provides students with an overview of the music appropriate to contemporary and historical contexts of their acting projects. Students will be able to apply standard body and vocal warm-ups and take active responsibility for identifying and remedying areas of personal weakness in performance. Contemporary theatre practices to extend students’ understanding of physicality, voice, movement and characterisation in relation to community theatre. Students will learn how to perform percussion improvisations and to create outdoor processional performance. They will explore a range of carnival traditions and learn to make appropriate choices for their use in practical projects.
This is a full-year module for students on the BA Hons Acting and Community Theatre course. The module explores the role of the arts in the public realm and will introduce the wider history and context of community theatre in the UK and Europe. It will draw on the development of ideas of 'popular theatre', including theories of carnival, spectacle and community empowerment, with examples from a range of cultural contexts and practices. Students will also explore theories of representation including semiotics, drawing on visual, aural and popular culture. You will critically analyse performances, lectures and classes you have attended, drawing on appropriatetechnical and theoretical vocabulary. You will learn to locate performance practice within a social and cultural framework.
The work of this BA Hons Acting and Community Theatre Year 3 module begins with a series of workshops to introduce students to the ethical and practical issues of working with vulnerable groups involved with the health, social services or criminal justice system. Students are encouraged to develop a working knowledge of the processes of exclusion and inclusion, and of contemporary practice of theatre arts projects with these participants. The module further explores the role of theatre and workshop facilitation with participants who may have a disability or poor mental health, or are socially excluded, are at risk of offending or are in the criminal justice system.
This module explores the research, development and performance of site-specific, issue-based and socio-political theatre. It explores citizenship, the interrelationship of performance environment, form and content, the notion of community- based media, satire and theatre for development. Students will develop a performance in an identified community setting with local historical or social significance. The performance will draw on advanced technical resources in performance and production, and involve extended development and application of acting, voice, music and movement skills. Students will explore theatre as propaganda, consultation and persuasion. Provocative texts designed to stimulate debate and interactive techniques designed to promote participation and enquiry may be used to illustrate this theatrical form. The role of theatre in development, regeneration and conflict resolution will be examined. Students will apply these approaches to research and development of a theatre performance. Advanced techniques in recording and editing of video and audio documentary and performance will be applied to develop a project of contemporary community media. Technical skill in web design will be developed
In this module you undertake a placement for a minimum of one day per week over fifteen weeks with a local or regional arts organisation of other user/provider of applied theatre. The work may be ‘blocked’ into a total of three weeks’ work or a combination of days and weeks by negotiation with the tutor and placement provider. Potential work placement providers include arts organisations, schools hospitals and social care or youth work settings. You are supported in their placements by the module tutor and a designated work placement supervisor within the organisation. You undertake 15 days work placement during the summer vacation between second and final years or other non-teaching periods as negotiated with the course leader. You critically examine the working practices of the organisations and companies with which you have a work placement. You further explore issues in current arts management, funding and arts development. You extend your arts administration knowledge in funding sources, developing a pitch and completing an application. Production management is advanced to consider planning, prioritising of areas and time lines. The work of this professional preparation module includes lectures with key industry bodies and personal management sessions.
This module runs over 10 weeks, and can wither run the length of the Autumn or Summer Term, or be separated into smaller blocks of work. The student will be responsible for securing their own placement, with approval needed from the Head of Course. The type of placement will vary according to student interest but it may fall under the following headings: Theatre Management, Company Management, Film Production, Media, Stage Management, Dramaturgy or Research Assistant, Assistant Director (film or theatre) and Arts Administration.
This is the summative project for the BA Hons Acting and Community Theatre final year. In small companies students will identify a community setting in which to develop a theatrical intervention. For example this could take the form of a community play, a participatory project, or promenade performance. The students will work with at least one group of participants to develop the project. Each company of students will work as production crew and FOH for another company. Students will align the artistic and practical needs of the project and the community they work with. They will ensure that the performance conforms to licensing and other regulatory requirements. They will consider issues of accessibility and interpretation for audiences. Posters, programmes, and publicity for the project will be produced. Through regular company meetings they will assign roles to manage publicity, production processes and documentation of performances. During the work of this module students will critically examine the role of the artist, management and arts administration in community theatre. They will reflect on their own artistic development and readiness for high level participation in the development of community arts provision.
4.3
