Acting and Creating Theatre (Stage 2)

Whether you want to advance your acting skills to tackle a Shakespearean text or take your skills to new levels, this 10-week practical course will provide you with the applied skills to approach either or both of these, and then some.

You'll explore various ways to develop an idea: from improvisation, writing techniques and physical theatre. You’ll be taught a variety of techniques to help dissolve habitual defences and enable you to transform into a free, instinctual and playful actor with the aim of being able to be completely ‘in the moment’ when you perform.

You'll explore different approaches to creating your own work. Starting with a theme, idea, or character you’ll examine different mediums and develop your ideas accordingly, be it a comedy sketch show, immersive theatre piece, radio play or musical.

As the course progresses, you'll continue to develop your own work to present or focus on advancing your acting skills further to perform a Shakespeare monologue or scene.

Throughout the course, you'll be given advice on how to take your work further to outside audiences and explore the variety of different avenues you can go down.

Your tutor, Charmaine, is a theatre practitioner working as an actor, writer, director, and producer. She’s vastly experienced in acting and directing Shakespeare and has written and created many theatre productions for the stage, open-air and in the community.

Charmaine’s approach allows her students to access, tap into and activate the sensory brain to balance with the narrative logical mind. She’s worked with a variety of aspiring actors to develop their skills, including children, students, professionals, and absolute beginners, all the while working in a fun, accessible and approachable way.

• The fundamentals of character and story development will be explored through a variety of techniques, enabling you to create believable, fully developed characters and worlds
• Explore your full potential as a performer and creative
• Exercises to create your own material to develop
• How the industry works from acting to casting to scriptwriting to directing and producing and why it's called ‘show business’
• Contemporary approaches to acting
• Explore creating your own work and have the choice to either develop that or continue to develop your skills in performing Shakespeare
• Develop and build confidence in your own voice as a performer or creative

• Possess enhanced acting abilities and an understanding of a range of contemporary approaches
• Have developed empathy and a greater understanding of human behaviour
• Be able to confidently tackle Shakespearean text
• Understand how the industry works, including acting, casting, scriptwriting, directing and producing
• Hold the knowledge and tools to enable to you to develop your own material in a range of mediums
• Understand different routes to finding an audience for your own work
• Have increased confidence in your own skills and feel inspired
• Have boosted creativity and imagination
• Be encouraged to experiment and explore your ideas, remembering that there's no right or wrong way to be creative
• Possess the foundations to continue creating beyond this course

All students with 100% course attendance will be issued with an official AUB Short Course certificate of attendance. To request your certificate contact the short courses team: shortcourses@aub.ac.uk or call 01202 363222.

After this course, you could:

• Continue to harness your creativity and develop your skills further; explore our full range of Acting, Performance and Dance short courses
• Broaden your creative horizons and try your hand at a range of disciplines; explore our full range of evening and weekend courses
• Join a local amateur dramatics society, improv or drama group to put your acting skills into practice
• Continue to develop your skills at home as a hobby

• You'll study at a leading specialist university – we know what we're doing when it comes to providing unparalleled courses
• Our tutors are industry professionals, so you'll learn from the best
• We cater for all abilities and have no formal entry requirements for this course, so there's nothing holding you back
• You'll learn in a safe and encouraging environment where there's no right or wrong way to be creative
• You'll learn 'by doing' and always feel fully included and supported
• Benefit from our incredible campus and its industry-standard studios, and use state-of-the-art equipment and software to unleash your creativity