Bristol School of Acting: ‘We encourage students to find their unique voice’

What will the performing arts of the future look like? How will actors construct a career? Who will make the industry-defining innovations?

At Bristol School of Acting – the UK’s newest drama school – students are taught that they are the ones with the power to make positive changes in the world of theatre, TV and film. They learn that they can create the cultural climate, whoever they are and wherever they come from.

“The word empowerment gets thrown around a lot, but it really is so important,” says Nancy Medina, BSA’s joint artistic director. “Of course, we will train our students to be excellent actors, prepared for any challenge that comes their way, but beyond that, we want to give them the confidence to create the performing arts world that they want to see.”

The performing arts world has changed dramatically in the past 10 years – and even more so during the coronavirus pandemic – and the role of the actor has changed with it. There is a demand, says Medina, for training programmes that reflect that change, and produce actors prepared for the industry as it is today, not the industry as it was a decade ago.

This September, Bristol School of Acting welcomed its first cohort of students on its new degree courses: the BA (hons) Acting for Screen and the BA (hons) Acting for Stage and Screen. Both courses have been especially designed to provide aspiring actors with the skills they need to succeed in the contemporary, post-coronavirus performing arts.

The BA (hons) Acting for Screen is a three-year programme, developed by acclaimed American actor and experienced tutor Matthew Humphreys, who ran a similar course at New York’s prestigious Pace University, and Charlie Cox, star of Netflix’s Daredevil and patron of Bristol School of Acting.

‘We will train our students to be excellent actors, but we also want to give them the confidence to create the performing arts world they want to see’

The emphasis is to make sure that students graduate already feeling comfortable and competent with cutting-edge techniques and technology. With the timing and financial constraints of the modern screen industries, explains Medina, producers need adaptable actors, capable of quickly finding their feet on film sets – and that is exactly what Bristol School of Acting will provide.

Students on the Acting for Screen programme will receive an average of more than 25 contact hours a week with industry experts every week, and leave Bristol School of Acting having spent three years appearing in professionally directed films, with a professional showreel, and invaluable experience in emerging areas like motion capture and augmented reality. They will be, says Medina, “a producer’s dream”.

The BA (hons) Acting for Stage and Screen, meanwhile, is an intensive, accelerated, two-year course. Extended terms, with 40 weeks of teaching per year, mean that students receive the same number of contact hours as on a three-year course but save thousands of pounds in tuition fees and living costs.

The concept, explains Medina, is that students will learn their techniques in the first year, then spend the second year in production at Bristol’s Tobacco Factory Theatres alongside classes developing those techniques. It is Tobacco Factory Theatres’ resident company-in-training – the first company of its kind in the country.

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