Programme Leader Profile - Robin Wilson

This practical and performance based programme is offered jointly by Queen Margaret University and the School of Arts and Creative Industries at Edinburgh Napier University.

The course draws on Queen Margaret’s expertise in actor training and on Edinburgh Napier's well established reputation as a centre for excellence in screen practice-led courses.

The degree is designed for direct entry at Year Three and will provide a distinctive and complementary course of actor training to the canonic conservatoire tradition. It recognises that the actor can be called upon to perform in a variety of venues, media and styles and will provide vocational and industry relevant training through exploration, centred on acting for stage and acting for screen, and on the craft and practice of performance. It will consolidate the fundamental skills of acting, character work, voice and movement, and explore the ways in which they are deployed and synthesised to create character and performance, and identify the ways in which these fundamental skills can be modified and made appropriate to the constraints of different media, narratives, and places of performance.

While the emphasis will be on practice, theories of performance will underpin workshops and students will be required to interrogate their practice rigorously and, in doing so, begin to create an actor's toolbox to which they will add over the years which will serve them throughout their chosen career.

Year Three

Intensive training in voice, movement and acting. Sharing a common lexicon of practice. Approaches to sustained performance and theories of performance. Semi-public stage productions followed by short films. The use of reflective process to improve skills and performance. The interpretation and assimilation of text in performance

Year Four

Professional productions on stage and screen. Critical approaches to acting and performance. The integration and fusion of skills in public performances. The application of acting techniques appropriate to a particular style of performance. The development of a personal portfolio showcasing the individual's work. Throughout both years there will be particular focus on style, and on the deployment of style appropriate to medium and genre. Through intensive study of the similarities and differences between the demands of theatrical and screen acting, graduates will have a critical understanding of how they might adapt their technique to other media and genres

for further information, contact:

Dr. Donna Soto-Morettini, School of Arts and Creative Industries, Edinburgh Napier University

d.Soto-Morettini@napier.ac.uk