Prospectus 2020 Prospectus East 15 Acting School Prospectus 2020 “East 15’s extraordinary legacy and its reputation for rigorous and inspired teaching ensures students consistently display an unusual degree of courage, vision and versatility that is very exciting to watch.” Colin Firth OBE Contents 4 Director’s welcome 6 About this prospectus 7 About East 15 8 Actor Skills at East 15 9 Prizes and Awards at East 15 10 Loughton Campus 12 Southend Campus 14 Support Services 15 Accommodation 16 Staff at East 15 21 Undergraduate study at East 15 22 BA Acting 24 BA Acting (International) 26 BA Acting and Community Theatre 28 BA Acting and Contemporary Theatre 30 BA Acting and Stage Combat 32 BA Physical Theatre 34 BA World Performance 36 BA Stage and Production Management 38 BA Creative Producing (Theatre and Short Film) 40 Certificate of Higher Education in Theatre Arts 42 Applying to East 15 as an undergraduate 44 Undergraduate auditions 46 Postgraduate study at East 15 48 MA Acting 50 MA/MFA Acting (International) 52 MA/MFA Theatre Directing 54 Applying to East 15 as a postgraduate 56 Postgraduate auditions 58 Money matters 62 University of Essex 63 Further information 4 Welcome to the East 15 prospectus Director’s welcome Director’s As you will read in the pages We have two first class campuses in I look forward to meeting many of you that follow, East 15 offers an Loughton, on the edge of London, and at auditions and interviews, and working extraordinary, dynamic and in picturesque Southend-on-Sea. This with those of you that join East 15 for your unique portfolio of courses that combination of resources and locations study and training. span many areas of training for enables us to offer a broad and diverse East 15 East 2020 Prospectus actors, directors, technical theatre range of courses at BA and MA/MFA specialists and students of theatre level, and make use of innovative and practice. In addition to the carefully excellently equipped learning facilities, selected UK students, we also teach such as the state-of-the-art Clifftown Leon Rubin and train students from over Theatre (www.Clifftowntheatre.com) and 26 countries worldwide suites of studios and technical facilities at (www.east15.ac.uk) both campuses. We have an outstanding www.east15.ac.uk Here at East 15 we draw upon our student satisfaction rating in the UK of traditions of over 50 years, while 97% total satisfaction in national student combining this with a keen sense of the surveys. changing world of stage and screen today. As part of the University of Essex, one Our training is by professionals and for of the UK’s leading academic institutions professionals, allowing our graduates (www.essex.ac.uk), we pride ourselves to work successfully across the globe. on placing excellence at the top of our Our international, outstanding teaching agenda in all our work. East 15 Acting faculty is made up of professionals from School has been named as the top drama all areas of live and recorded performance. school in the U.K. in the Times and Sunday Times Good University guide Director Leon Rubin with recent graduates 5 6 About this prospectus 2-5 December 2014. This Review found that the University meets all expectations required of higher education providers, and commended the University's focus About this prospectus on improving the student learning experience. A copy of the full report is available on the QAA website at: www.qaa.ac.uk/ reviews/reports Further information East 15 Acting School is part of the University of Essex At Loughton East 15 Acting School Hatfields Campus Rectory Lane Loughton IG10 3RY Telephone: +44 (0)20 8508 5983 At Southend East 15 Acting School Southend Campus Elmer Approach Southend-on-Sea SS1 1LW Telephone: +44 (0)1702 328200 Fax: +44 (0)1702 328201 East 15 East 2020 Prospectus E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.east15.ac.uk This prospectus has been prepared in industrial action. For the most up-to-date Art Director/Editor: Kevin Wyatt-Lown Spring 2019 for courses available from information, please contact East 15 directly. September 2020. The full Procedures, Rules and Designer: Stephen Foster Design Although great care is taken in compiling Regulations for the University of Essex this prospectus, it is for the general are set out in the Charter, Statutes Photographers: Gemma Mount, guidance of prospective students only. and Ordinances and in the University Andrew H. Williams, Kevin Wyatt-Lown, www.east15.ac.uk East 15 Acting School cannot guarantee Regulations, Policy and Procedures. Robin Little the provision of all courses and services Copies are available on request from advertised in the event of circumstances the University. In accepting the offer of beyond its control and therefore reserves a place at the University, you consent to the right to make changes or cancel any incorporation of this notice as a term of course without notice, should this become contract between you and the University. ACTING SCHOOL necessary. The School cannot be held responsible for failure/delay in performing Quality assurance obligations caused by things beyond its The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) last reasonable control, such as fire, flood or undertook a Review of the University from About East 15 7 About East 15 About East For over 50 years, East 15 has Jacques Lecoq, Peter Brook and other produced actors, directors, important contemporary trainers. theatre practitioners In 2000, East 15 merged with the and technicians for the international stage, TV, film University of Essex, a leading UK and radio. research-intensive university, opening East 15, based in an exciting new chapter in the history Loughton on the edge of of both institutions and offering more East London and founded opportunities to students. by Margaret Bury, grew from the work of Joan Since 2007, under the directorship Littlewood’s famed of Leon Rubin, more than 13 million Theatre Workshop, pounds have been spent on new buildings which broke new and facilities for East 15 in Loughton and ground, re-interpreting Southend-on-Sea, including the Clifftown the classics for a modern age, Theatre and Studios, once a Victorian commissioning new gothic church in Southend which now plays from socially enjoys a new lease of life, converted into committed writers, studios, workshops and a state-of-the- and creating an art theatre and performance space. In ensemble capable of inventing new work. that period several new programmes It evolved into an have also been developed to take the outstanding ensemble school into a new era of international that combined inspired, and culturally diverse stage and screen improvisational brilliance performance territories. with method, technique, research, text analysis and the intense expression East 15 is one of a leading group of truthful emotion. Much of the of UK conservatoires. It is now one of original approach was based upon the the largest specialist theatre schools in theories of Stanislavsky and over the the UK, with a distinguished international years new training methods at East 15 teaching staff and an undergraduate have now embraced approaches from diverse practitioners, such as Michael and extensive postgraduate population Chekhov, Rudolf Laban, Jerzy Grotowski, of over 770 students. 8 Actor skills at East 15 East 15’s training emphasises a balance Voice Music between personal discovery, intuition The voice teachers at East 15 aim to equip Students with the ability to play musical and technical skills. The aim is to give students with the skills required to release instruments can develop those talents Actor skills at East 15 East skills at Actor students the basic awareness and their full vocal potential beyond the and there are numerous possibilities to confidence that will allow them to limits of “habit” voice. Students combine play in ensembles for private and public continue to learn and perfect their emotional truth with theatrical energy performances at East 15. Although craft in the years to come. using techniques derived from leading instrumental playing is not part of the Movement physical and vocal practitioners like Laban, assessment, actors who develop such Chekhov, Berry and Linklater. skills certainly enhance their employability. The main focus of the movement programme at East 15 is to encourage Singing Media confident, focussed, flexible, imaginative, Actors must have a good feel for music, East 15 students are introduced to the physically expressive and truthful actors. even if they cannot sing a note. Students techniques and disciplines of working The course is based on dynamic alignment at East 15 will learn to understand the with recorded, digital and online media. (which may include Alexander, Authentic rudiments of music and be able to Movement, Bartenieff, Body Centring approach a song with confidence and Preparation for the industry Experiential Anatomy and Pilates), feeling. Students with musical theatre Guest lectures and workshops, given by characterisation techniques (including potential will be encouraged further industry specialists, help prepare East 15 Laban, Grotowski, Lecoq and Chekhov- although the overall emphasis is on students for the complexity of working based work), dance (including jazz and acting through song. in theatre, film, TV and related areas. ballet) and stage combat. East 15 East 2020 Prospectus www.east15.ac.uk Prizes and Awards at East 15 9 Edmunds (2017, £4,500), The Jacob’s Ladder Bursary Gabriella Leon (2016, was established in 2016 and makes £4.500) and Kathleen multiple awards totalling £25,000 Hood (2015, £4.500). each year. In 2016 there were eight, and 2017 fifteen, awards made. In The Laurence 2018 some twenty students benefited Olivier Bursary from the Bursary. The £500 Tim Welling Award This is worth up to £7,500 East 15 for and Awards Prizes commemorates a past student of the for a student entering the school and is awarded to a BA Acting third year of BA Acting and student.