Curious about studying Acting for Stage and Screen - BA (Hons)at Bucks New University? 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)
High Wycombe Campus
Full Time
Sep 2027
3 Year
If you’re looking to break into the performance industry, this degree in acting is an excellent launch pad to help you get there. On this BA (Hons) Acting Stage and Screen course you’ll get to fine-tune and extend your acting skills, working on live briefs, networking with industry creatives, and taking part in diverse projects.
Why study BA (Hons) Acting Stage and Screen at BNU?Best of both worldsWhile numerous acting programs predominantly concentrate on theatre, our curriculum uniquely prioritises both stage and on-screen acting. Recognising the substantial demand for roles in film, television, and online media in today's industry, our course ensure you are prepared for the many roles that make up the industry.
Taught by the industryThis BA (Hons) Acting Stage and Screen degree is led by a dedicated and experienced course team. Benefit from their industry knowledge and the industry links they bring to the course. Many of our guest lecturers are industry-experts and alongside your lecturers, they’ll nurture your learning and professional development. As well as this we seek to bring your work into the wider world and to bring the world into the university. During your time at BNU you’ll have the opportunity to perform at external venues and take part in workshops with leading companies, both on and off campus. Previous theatre companies and practitioners include Paper Birds on devising theatre, Out of Joint on contemporary texts, Mark McGann on acting for camera, and Station House Opera on intermedial theatre. On occasion you could also find yourself using the professional venue at Wycombe Town Hall, which is less than two minutes from our campus.
Inspiring facilitiesAt BNU we ensure you have creative spaces to bring your ideas to life. On this course you’ll have access to drama studios. Each space brings with it unique features, from moving lights and fully equipped sound systems and projection to mirrors, a tiered seating bank and sprung floors. You’ll also have access to our props store where you can find everything you’ll need to bring your performances to life, from costumes and wigs, to lamps and even a coffin.You’ll also have access to high quality camera equipment, a greenscreen room and lighting rigs and sound recording facilities, all suitable for film and TV screening.We also understand that during your time at university, it is also just important to get involved with extra-curricular activities. Our Students’ Union offers a range of free societies and nights out for you to enjoy, from musical theatre society to our yearly festiball event, there is something for everyone.
A degree for youDuring your time on this course, you will create your own performances, including your own shows, films and short scenes – and take things in the direction that interests you, whether that’s directing or devising, or focusing on a particular theory, piece of research or playwright. You’ll develop an understanding of what is required for acting on screen as well as stage, and will become a motivated team player able to think about the world around them.In your final year, you will manage your own significant screen or stage-based production, from conception, to venue booking, marketing and performance. You will also set up your own artistic company, and learn about all the elements involved in that, from budgeting and funding applications, to promoting yourself as a professional artist.This course is also offered as a four-year programme, including an initial Foundation Year. The BA (Hons) Acting Foundation Year will allow you to develop your academic study skills and build confidence in your abilities, identifying your own strengths and development needs for progression onto an undergraduate programme.
This module introduces you to key concepts and methods relating to acting through a practical studio situation. A workshop series will deal with the basic processes of developing character and performing from text. You’ll engage with psychological, analytical and imaginative techniques and learn to apply them to physical expression, embodied in voice, movement, gesture.
This module is an introduction to core physical and vocal skills required for performance by exploring various performance-training methods. Throughout the movement strand, you’ll be introduced to physical expression for the stage, embodiment and abstract movement, progressing to a more structured, choreographed approach to movement.
This module provides an introduction to skills needed for staging scripted performances within a studio environment. You’ll engage in practical workshops that are teacher led. Scenes will be directed by either a tutor or potentially other students. Learners will explore means of translating these workshops into performances for an audience.
This module engages learners in an in-depth inquiry into movement for camera and screen. You will be introduced to and encouraged to explore physical performance and dance making in which the body of the performer intersects with time, space, dynamics, speed, and spatial composition within the cinematic frame.
On this module you’ll acquaint yourself with a range of practical models, including their theoretical underpinning. You’ll examine key practitioners and study the wider context within which these practitioners operated and explore the work of the practitioners in practical sessions.
On this module you’ll be presented with key global debates which impact our lives and could influence your creative practice and positions as creatives in ever-changing professional industries. Through research and critical reflection, you’ll explore these issues which may be related to sustainability, politics and other ecological or socio- economic factors, and respond to them creatively using your chosen discipline-specific practice.
The module builds on L4 technique modules in voice and theatre production. You’ll apply existing and develop new skills within a technological context covering both audio and screen work. You will also encounter a range of commercially successful performance texts suited to the range of media platforms through which they are delivered.
The module focuses on engaging you with an in-depth inquiry into their own creative processes. It will encourage engagement in the fundamental processes involved in movement generation and its creative development within performance making.
This module builds upon the knowledge and skills gained at Level 4 in ‘Introduction to Production’ and enables you to engage with dramatic literature or devising processes through the development of two productions; the first is for stage, the second for film and both enable you to mirror contemporary working practices in the professional world.
This module explores the working processes of directors for screen: their approaches to script and actors, their aesthetic concerns, their working methods and other practices. You’ll encounter rehearsal techniques, storyboard planning, screenplay development and find ways to reveal the subtext of scenes through screen action. You’ll also engage in directing scenes and short stage productions.
Independent Production enables you to research and implement the findings relating to dramatic literature, professional stage and film productions applying findings to the creation of a stage performance or film of your own.
The aim of the module is for you to understand, communicate and critique the structures and policies within the commercial sectors of the performing arts, so that as independent artists you can negotiate a pathway to employment or self-employment.
The module aims to enable you to work with performing arts specialists at the forefront of whichever aspect of the discipline you choose to engage with, across the performance sector. Based on the notion of ‘legitimate, peripheral participation’, you’ll attend a workplace or places over the course of the module to build up your sense of situated knowledge.
A practical dissertation is an examination of an individual learner's ability to develop – over an extended period - a coherent project, drawing on a range of practical and academic skills from the core and optional modules already pursued within the learner's degree programme.
4.4Bucks New University (BNU) is a student-focused university based in High Wycombe, with over 130 years of educational his...
