Acting

Acting 1A (15 CU)
This module provides the foundation skills required for a stage performer through components in Acting, Voice and Script Analysis.

Acting
This component establishes the groundwork and understanding of what constitutes a reliable approach to acting, to be augmented over the three years of the programme. You will explore various concepts, physical and mental techniques associated with the Stanislavski system of actor training, and apply these through exercises, improvisations and scene studies.

Voice
Voice classes introduce a series of exercises and techniques designed to lay the foundation for a sound vocal instrument. You will be made aware of the importance of breath (support and release), resonance (balance and placement) and muscularity. Individual problem areas and habituated vocal patterns are identified, and specific vocal needs and capabilities explored. The foundation for clear vowels and consonants and flexible articulation is also established in exercises emphasising speech itself.

Script Analysis
Script analysis is the road map to an actor’s work. Actors make their acting choices from the knowledge given to them through script analysis, which keeps them on steady course with the writer's intentions. Analysing the script creates a blueprint of clear choices that allows the actor to fully embody the text by simultaneously engaging with it intellectually, emotionally and physically. Script analysis gives the actor a foundation to build on for character development, and provides the canvas to hone your acting skills and techniques.

Acting Techniques 1A (15 CU)
This module will encourage you to explore the following areas:

• An activation of the actor's imagination
• Awareness of your imaginative resources
• A deep knowledge of the physical and emotional body
• A visceral experience of character transformation
• Rediscovering an uninhibited and innate sense of playfulness
• The principles of “play”, the development of spontaneity and the stimulation of your awareness of others
• Creative problem-solving through imagination and improvisation

This module provides practical classes in improvisation, to develop your imaginative resources, introducing you to the principles of play, developing spontaneity and stimulating an awareness of others. Movement classes heighten your understanding of your body as the performer’s instrument, extending your physical awareness and the potential for physical communication in space.

The work in this module emphasises the rigorous nature of actor training, and requires you to develop ways of integrating the elements taught. The practical study of performance techniques and methodologies from both Eastern and Western traditions will introduce you to how a body works in space and time. Through a variety of different approaches and classes, you will be encouraged to understand your habitual, physical and kinesthetic patterns, and how to free yourself of personal movement patterns. You will be introduced to qualitative research methods of recording and reflecting upon their creative process, through the construction of an e-portfolio.

Performance History and Analysis 1A (15 CU)
This module engages you through components in the History of World Theatre and in studies of Dramatic Literature. It provides you with the social, cultural and historical context to understand live theatre performances of today. You will gain an overview of European and Asian theatre, the history that informed the development of European and Asian theatre, and dramatic texts beginning from the early 19th century.

History of World Theatre
You will receive an overview of Western and Asian performance from early Greek and Roman theatre, through Medieval to the Restoration, Enlightenment to the Romantics era. Also included are instructions of early Indian, Chinese and South-east Asian performance traditions. Emphasis is given to the ideas and concepts, which have influenced the art and craft of acting, thereby encouraging an understanding of the interplay between practice and theory.

Dramatic Literature
This component engages you in the study and analysis of Dramatic Literature, providing in-depth analysis of dramatic texts, as well as examining genres, themes and ideas that inform advances in critical thinking. You will gain an understanding of how to read, analyse and discuss dramatic texts. The focus of this component is on the classics of European dramatic literature and major playwrights, studied in relation to theatre history. You wil concentrate on small sections of text from a range of plays, and the focus is on developing your ability to extract useful and accurate information, as well as make connection between script and practical application for performance.

General Studies
This component will introduce you to subjects that sit outside your usual frame of reference, and will provide you with a more robust and rounded education.

Asian Theatre Project (15 CU)
This module facilitates the understanding and acquisition of the appropriate performance vocabularies, skills, structures and working methods.

The practical application and integration of acting, improvisation, voice, movement skills and contextual studies manifests through a small classroom showing that emphasises narrative, character, voice and physicality.

The projects, which focus on Asian Theatre and methodologies, require elements that allow you to apply class-work and further develop work methods within rehearsal deadlines. Work is expected to be courageous and dynamic, vivid and theatrical, for sincerity, imagination, involvement and full-blooded application to the moment.

Performance opportunities remain in the studio, in the context of masterclasses, workshops, and/or project presentations.

Acting 1B (15 CU)
This module builds on the elementary skills taught in Acting and Voice from the module in Semester 1 to give you a more comprehensive understanding of the techniques available to them. You will be exposed to different approaches to Acting, giving you a more comprehensive understanding of the techniques available to you. This may include the critical exploration and practical studies of approaches such as Uta Hagen’s concept of working on self in order to identify character, the essentials of the Stella Adler technique, and the interchange between the performer’s conscious and subconscious resources as outlined in Declan Donnellan’s The Actor and The Target, and others.

You will discover the interdependence of voice and body, and be introduced to the anatomy and physiology of the voice, as well as to health and care of voice, together with warm up and articulation exercises. Awareness of the importance of breath (support and release), resonance (balance and placement) and muscularity will be emphasised. You will also begin the study of phonetics as a preparation for later accent and dialect work. 

You will work beyond linear understanding and personalisation, into deeper explorations of character and characterisation. The module explores the tools and elements used in the act of observation, applied research, and making of physical and vocal adjustments in pursuit of distinctive and dimensional characterisations. You will be exposed to more complex physical entry points for characterisation, as well as continue to build your strength, flexibility, spatial awareness, endurance and physical dexterity.

Acting Techniques 1B (15 CU) 
This module further develops your skills by employing techniques from different performance traditions and training systems. Through practical exercises and study of these techniques, you will extend your physical, interpretive and creative capabilities as a performer. 

You will activate your physical awareness and develop your overall ability to communicate non-verbally. You will address areas like centeredness, alignment and connection through the body, thereby developing your body-space and kinetic awareness. You will continue to record and reflect upon your creative process through your e-portfolio.

Performance History and Analysis 1B (15 CU) 
This module engages you through components in the History of World Theatre and in studies of Dramatic Literature. It provides you with the social, cultural and historical context to understand live theatre performances of today. You will gain an overview of modern European, American and Asian theatre, and the history that informed the development of modern dramatic texts.

History of World Theatre
You will receive an overview of Western performance from late 19th century developments reflecting Stanislavski and the birth of modern theatre, together with 20th century theatre and contemporary theatre practice, particularly in Europe, North America and Asia. Emphasis is given to the ideas and concepts which have influenced the art and craft of acting, thereby encouraging an understanding of the interplay between practice and theory.

Dramatic Literature
This component engages you in the study and analysis of Dramatic Literature, provides in-depth analysis of dramatic texts, as well as examines genres, themes and ideas that inform advances in critical thinking. You will extend your understanding of how to read, analyse and discuss dramatic texts. The focus of this component is on the classics of European, Asian and North American dramatic literature and major playwrights, studied in relation to theatre history from the late 19th century through the 20th century and into the 21st century. You will concentrate on small sections of text from a range of plays, with a focus on developing your ability to extract useful and accurate information, and make connection between script and practical application for performance. This component provides the groundwork for the actor’s ability to transform text into performance.

General Studies
This component will introduce you to subjects that sit outside your usual frame of reference, and will provide you with a more robust and rounded education.

Performance 1B (15 CU) 
This module builds upon the fundamentals laid down in Performance 1A.

The practical application and integration of acting, improvisation, voice, movement skills and contextual studies continues through the culmination of two small-scale performances. The first production may be a non-text based work that extends you physically in a small showing; while the second production will a text-based work which will further develop your ability to construct authentic, credible characters in work presented in one of the theatre venues.

The projects require elements which allow you to apply class-work and further develop work methods within rehearsal deadlines. Work is expected to be courageous and dynamic, vivid and theatrical, for sincerity, imagination, involvement and full-blooded application to the moment.

Acting Techniques 2A
This module is designed to build upon the various acting techniques that is taught in Level 1. Acting techniques provide a framework and lays the foundation for continuing professional development in performance. The module caters specifically for the enhancement of self-awareness and projection. It places strong emphasis on personal development, creativity and the contribution of individuals in a group setting.

Performance 2A
This module continues to challenge you and widen parameters and deepen knowledge. Integration and application of learned skills with the responsibility for sustaining a role throughout rehearsal and performance process is continued.

The module provides opportunity for you to apply technical skills, performance theories and research methods into real performance in a production for an audience. This exposure to an audience, the essential ingredient of theatre. 

You will begin to evaluate performance achievement and how much of their work is successfully communicated; this begins greater understanding of any shortcomings in their practical work methods. The production will be mounted in the College’s performance spaces, and over the course, a variety of venues are chosen to require you to adapt performance work to differing theatre shapes. Actors work with students from other programmes, and are required to observe the disciplines of stage management, theatre production and design. As you are introduced to the rigours of technical and dress rehearsals, you will also become more aware of the collaborative nature of their art form, and the actor’s responsibilities to their close colleagues.

Acting Techniques 2B 

You will continue to explore and identify the acting skills necessary to allow personal dramative development. These development will be supported through complementing traditional perspectives on performance with contemporary theories, issues and debates. This module will strengthen and consolidate the techniques and skills you have acquired that will provide them with a working knowledge of actor as repository of life experience. You will also be provided with a range of practical skills that are essential to a contemporary actor in areas such as devising, composition, design, cross-cultural practices, industry practice, motion capture, ADR, gaming, presenting skills, and hosting techniques.

Performance 2B

You will learn how to interpret concepts of language, engage with heightened reality, the outer physicality and inner life of character, create exciting relationships and the methods practiced so far in the programme. The module will demand an even more developed and sustained range of emotional, physical and vocal expression as well as a deeper understanding of the plays in their contemporary context.

Student Exchange Elective

You will have the opportunity to explore fresh perspectives and alternative approaches to your creative discipline by undertaking a semester-long international learning exchange in another institution. The aim of the module is to provide, interested students, an opportunity to enrich their learning journey, enhance their creative practice, learn from a socio-culturally different educational setting and be exposed to new cultural and creative industries.

Acting 2A (15 CU)
This module begins to develop your work methodology by exploring a range of acting and voice techniques, and applying these to increasingly complex texts and performance forms.

The module explores the tools and elements used in the act of observation, applied research, and making of physical and vocal adjustments in pursuit of distinctive and dimensional characterisations. The actors’ technical skills in naturalism are further enhanced. Honesty of performance is continually tested through the demands of acting for the camera. You will also engage with the classical texts, imaginary and complex language structures, such as Shakespeare’s plays, which require complexity of character and depth in the human experience.

Character voice is the primary focus, while resonance, vocal placement and support continue to be addressed. You will discover a connection to language, words and rhetoric, the importance of oracy, and an awareness of the three-dimensional physical muscularity of body/vocal tract and language/image. Using heightened texts, you will learn to trust the instincts and needs of the character, rather than the intellectual presentation of the language, poetry and style of the play. You will begin to explore various accents. There is also an emphasis on the physical awareness and experience of sound distinction, and the ability to discern subtle changes in vocally articulated sounds. 

Performance History and Analysis 2A (15 CU)
This module includes a more specific study and exploration of the development of Musical Theatre. You will examine musical theatre and its history, as well as evolvement through discussions and research. The analysis, evaluation and assessment of text, lyrics, music and context of the seminal works, and their creators, provide a secure knowledge base for performance.

Continued examination of Dramatic Literature provides further analytical insights into both the literature and its writers.

This module further examines different periods and styles in Western and non-Western theatre – giving context, where possible, to the texts used in the performance modules. In conjunction with an overview of contemporary theatre practice, they also discuss the ‘isms’, and movements/forms such as Epic, Absurd and Post-Modern.

Analysis of performance texts takes the works of major playwrights from different periods and studies the distinctive features that identify particular periods and styles. You wil engage creatively and critically in independent research. In seminars, attention is placed on performance texts from the region and the cultural frameworks that surround the performance texts.

Acting 2B (15 CU)
You will continue to develop an individual work methodology in this module. You will be exposed to contemporary acting methodologies and various acting styles, and are encouraged to synthesise your work with greater depth and acumen. You will work beyond linear understanding and personalisation, into deeper explorations of characters and characterisation. Voice work becomes more integrated into performance, along with a greater understanding of the actors’ body and movement. You will develop the capacity to apply accents to create characters, and will continue to develop both your speaking and singing voice, formulating a deeper connection between text, breath and sound.

Performance History and Analysis 2B (15 CU)
This module will provide an insight into the history and the development of film. Extensive exploration will be given to historic film cultures and practices, major cinematic movements, and their different and distinct structures. The study of film history will encompass cinema from its inception, through the studio era and present day. A series of weekly screenings provides a link between theory and practice.

In this module, you will also carry out supervised independent practice/artistic research on a topic of your predilection. The purpose is to educate you with the skills necessary to reflect upon your training and artistic practice, in order to formulate a coherent inquiry into the specific practical and theoretical lineages and their complexities. You will experiment with a comprehensive set of practice-based and practice research skills and methods. Topics covered include: (1) the framing, justification, and articulation of a practice/artistic research project, (2) documentation and presentation of research outputs, and (3) mechanisms of dissemination and of bridging research and professional practice. This component prepares students for the Dissertation module in Level 3.

Industry and Community Engagement (20 CU) 
This module is designed to enable you to broaden your knowledge of the cultural and creative industries by placing you, as a learning professional, within a professional work environment. The aim of the module is to help you develop work-related knowledge, skills and capabilities, prepare you to pursue opportunities in fields relating to your study, and expose you to a diverse set of professional trajectories. You will map your acquired skills, interests and aspirations against current (and future) opportunities in the cultural and creative industries, while putting to practice skills and knowledge gained in the classroom. You are required to attend various industry preparation workshops, such as resume-writing, interview skills, and etc., as part of this module.

In fulfilment of this module, you can choose one of the following options: 

Option A: Industry-based Internship(s)
You will independently source and apply for internship opportunities. You are required to identify your interest and career-trajectory. These opportunities should be in an organisation where the job functions are related to your discipline. 

The internship may be with a single organisation or an accumulation of short-term work with different companies, to accumulate the minimum 200 hours of on-the-job training. The internship may be spread across a number of days/weeks and need not be a full-time position. Where possible, you are encouraged to go beyond the minimum hours in order to showcase your talent and abilities, which will aid your quest for permanent employment and/or gain more opportunities to learn about the job and industry. 

All internships must be approved by the Programme Leader, prior to commencement, to align with learning aims and outcomes.

Option B: Negotiated Projects 
You will take a proactive and entrepreneurial approach to identify and create a niche for yourself, within the cultural and creative industries. You may undertake a combination of the following types of projects:

• Industry Live Project: You can source for an industry project, or this can be facilitated through the programme.
• Entrepreneurial Project: You may devise a business proposal and execute it. 
• Community Engagement Project: You can engage with a community of your preference, and develop and execute an initiative for them. 
• Short-term internship (about 100 hours)

To ensure that you fulfil the learning outcomes of this module, all proposals and short-term internship opportunities must be discussed and approved by the Programme Leader.

Dissertation (40 CU) 
This module is the culmination of the research and contextual knowledge that you have acquired during the course of your study. You will be required to undertake in-depth critical research, and present a coherent argument based on investigation and analysis. The chosen topic will be relevant to your main course of study, and will be used to support and inform your specialist practice. It will demonstrate your deep appreciation of your field, and competency of key approaches and methodologies to contextualise it.

You will demonstrate an ability to identify a research topic that is close to your practice or field of study through a clear literature review, and present relevant arguments and hypotheses in the written form of between 6,000 to 8,000 words.

Before commencing your dissertation, you will be required to develop a research proposal outline to demonstrate your research question and approach to completing the dissertation. In consultation with your supervisor, you may form your dissertation around an exegesis that foregrounds your major creative studio practice. Programmes where you are eligible to develop a piece of creative practice as part of your dissertation may be negotiated with your supervisor. In this instance, the word count for the written element may be negotiated, but a minimum word count of 4,000 words is required.

You are expected to undertake a significant amount of independent and self-motivated research. You will be assigned a supervisor who will provide guidance in your research work. You will also be required to attend all dissertation-related classes.

Graduation Performance (60 CU) 
This module accustoms you to the environment and practices clearly aligned with those of a professional theatre company. The interdependence of all of the actor’s process is stressed, and you are expected to create work that has the efficiency and deftness of professional acting. This module extends your experience of theatre in full-length, fully mounted production(s) of contemporary plays in roles best suited to your unique qualities. You are expected to adapt your working methods to meet specific vocal, physical and technical demands of the different spaces and audiences, with assurance.

The repertoire moves to contemporary plays selected to celebrate and promote the graduating students as intelligent young artists in touch with contemporary issues in the real world. These complement and balance the range of roles and productions in which you have already performed.

The productions will always draw upon contemporary and cutting-edge practices which are being employed in Singapore, Asia and the rest of the world. You will continue your professional development by engaging in mock-auditions with industry professionals, screen tests, voiceover work and finally the construction of a showreel. These demonstrations and projects will ensure that you are provided with the best opportunity to be industry-ready, enabling you to promote yourself following graduation.