Acting and Creating Theatre (Stage 2)

Ages: 18+
Term: Spring
Length: 10 weeks

Overview

Whether your aim is to confidently tackle Shakespearean text or to push your theatre making skills into new creative territory, this 10-week focused and practical course provides the tools, techniques and support to do so.

To book your place today, simply click Book Now to be taken to AUB's secure online store, where you can complete your booking. You can also sign up to our newsletter for short course updates.

About this course

Designed for experienced performers, this advanced acting course challenges you to deepen your craft, extend your creative range and explore new approaches to performance-making. It is ideal for those who already have acting experience (at university, on amateur stages, or in a professional setting) or who have completed Acting - An Introduction (Stage 1) and are ready to take their work further.

You’ll explore multiple ways of generating and developing work, including improvisation, writing techniques and physical theatre. You’ll be inspired by different practitioners including Mike Leigh, Mike Alfreds, Katie Mitchell and Peter Brook, coming away with a better understanding of how to remain present, work with others, and get involved in theatre locally.

You’ll examine how to read a text, understand character and play material with clarity and confidence, while revisiting key acting approaches and learning how to apply them in more complex ways. As the course develops, you’ll also explore creating your own work – starting from a theme, idea or character and developing it into the most appropriate form. This might include a comedy sketch show, immersive theatre piece, radio play or musical.

As the course progresses, you can choose to continue developing original work for presentation or focus more deeply on advancing your acting skills through performance of a Shakespeare monologue or scene. Throughout, you’ll receive guidance on how to take your work beyond the classroom and explore different pathways to sharing it with audiences.

Your tutor, Rohan Gotobed, is a director, actor and writer with extensive professional experience across stage, screen and theatre-making. He's best-known for roles in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Casualty, and Hoff the Record.

As Artistic Director of Dorsetborn, he's made theatre throughout the South West, creating multiple new productions including Lessons from Teacher, Fort and Georgia and the Iceberg. His facilitative approach empowers students to make imaginative and informed choices as actors, supporting performers to discover depth, freedom, and authenticity onstage. He's worked with a wide range of performers, from community artists to West End professionals, always promoting a playful and inclusive environment.

Exploring character and story development through a range of acting and creative techniques
Movement-led and physical exercises to support embodied, instinctive performance
Creating believable, fully realised characters and performance worlds
Guided exercises for developing original material
Industry insight into acting, casting, writing, directing and producing
Q+As with industry professionals (recent guests have included award-winning actor Akshay Sharan and director Ed Viney)
Refreshing core acting fundamentals alongside contemporary approaches
The option to focus on original work or advanced Shakespeare performance
Building confidence in your own voice as a performer and creative

Timetable

Week 1: How to read it – Building an ensemble. Being in the moment. Scene analysis. The choices a writer makes. Shakespearean language. Breaking down a speech from Hamlet.
Week 2: Embodying it – Character exercises. Using the peaks and troughs of Shakespearean poetry. Physicality and intention. Observations. Work developed on monologue selected in Week 1.
Week 3: Doing it – Performing monologues to the group. Generous feedback and notes. Actioning and tactics. ‘Do it’ exercise. Shakespearean duologues selected and improvs developed around them.
Week 4: Staying in it – Developing duologues selected in Week 3, to be performed to the group during this session. Relaxation onstage. Finding connection with your scene partner. Tactics. Winners and losers in a scene.
Week 5: What is it? Who is it? – Spoon River anthology. Bringing life to anonymous voices. Mike Leigh’s process. Improvisation/devising from different sources. The formless hunch. Documenting ideas and considering the end of course project.
Week 6: Moulding it – Longer improvisation. Realism versus naturalism. Techniques for the toolbox. Groups formed and 10-minute projects commence. Actor-led.
Week 7: Composing it – Images in scenes. Status and tactics in new work. The gesture. The challenge. The audience experience. Developing 10-minute projects together in groups. Actions speak louder than words. How to use them.
Week 8: Understanding it – The power of punctuation. The power of thought. Breaking down scenes and building them up. Working together on 10-minute projects, with some time dedicated to revisiting Shakespeare monologues. Time for a discussion around the state of the industry, locally and nationally.
Week 9: Finessing it – Adding props and costume. The character from outside in. Subtext and the joy of experimenting in performance. Making use out of previews and feedback. Given circumstances and backstory.
Week 10: Celebrating it – Performing 10-minute projects and Shakespeare monologues. Feedback and summary of the course. Giving the best of yourself to your ensemble and your piece. Challenges and successes. What comes next.

At the end of the course you'll:

Gain varied practical skills to be able to create your own work
Confidently tackle a Shakespearean text
Enhance your perspective of how to go about developing your own work and the different routes to sharing it with an audience
Develop confidence, empathy and understanding of human behaviour
You'll feel confident about accessing your subconscious and trusting your own voice in developing your own work
Possess improved artistic skills
Have increased confidence in your own skills and feel inspired
Have boosted creativity and imagination
Possess the foundations to continue creating beyond this course

You can request a certificate to confirm your achievements, providing you've a 100% attendance record. To request a certificate please get in touch with us at academy@aub.ac.uk and confirm your name and the title of course you've completed.

Will I be assessed?

No, there's no formal assessment. As the course progresses, your tutor will measure your overall performance and offer essential guidance and feedback, so you know how you're getting on.

What you need to know

Spring term 2027

Thursday 14 January – 18 March 2027 (10 Thursday evenings, 18.00–21.00)

Age

Suitable for adults aged 18+.

Level

Intermediate or anyone with some experience who wants to refresh or develop their skills further.

Experience or qualifications required

You should possess some acting knowledge or experience in order to benefit the most from this course. Ideally, you’ll have previously completed our Acting – an Introduction (Stage 1) course.

If you'd like to discuss if this course is suitable for you, get in touch with us: academy@aub.ac.uk or 01202 363222.

£385

Any additional costs

Unless you wish to purchase any costumes, there are no additional costs for this course.

Additional materials and resources will be provided by AUB and is included in your course fee.

Notebook and pens/pencils to take notes
Wear comfortable, practical clothes and footwear
An open mind and a sense of humour

A student stands painting two cherries in a sketch book.

Suggested Suppliers

Information about resourcing specialist materials/consumables that you may need to bring these with you

A flower and a pair of sunglasses rest on a pair of boxes. A stiletto heel shoe and a handbag are sitting in front of another box. The other stiletto heel shoe is on top of one of the boxes.

AUB Academy FAQs – Evening and Weekend and Saturday Art School

If you have any questions about our Evening and Saturday Short Courses, you may find the answers in here.

A person leans in and looks closely at a big display board with assorted pieces of graphic design work.

AUB Academy booking T&Cs

Please read our Terms and Conditions carefully before booking onto our Evening and Weekend courses.

Meet your tutor

Young person with curly hair in dark hoodie sits reading book in modern library with wooden upper level and white walls.

Rohan Gotobed

Rohan Gotobed is a theatre director, writer, and actor. Since training at Birkbeck and the Unicorn Theatre, he has...

Book your place today

Book now

Acting gallery

Two actors in costume - one as a white witch with an ice crown, the other as a school child with a fur shawl wrapped around them - sitting on a bed.

Still from an acting performance of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.

A performer stands with a serious expression on the left-hand side with a group of other performers reaching towards him.

Students in a production of The Cherry Orchard

Two people sitting next to each other laughing and looking through a magazine.

Beyond the course

This could just be the start of your creative journey! After this course, you could look to the future and explore our creative qualifications that can prepare you to further your current career, enable you to retrain to an alternative career path or prepare you for future creative arts studies.