A common first year gives students an overview of all areas of the performing arts. In Year 2, students choose to specialise in either Acting or Theatre Design. This flexibility to change direction allows students to figure out where their passion lies.
Students are encouraged to take up short work placements in Year 3. This allows them to create industry contacts and gain first-hand professional experience. Work placements take place in a variety of settings including schools, radio stations, arts centres and theatre companies. Work placement locations have included the Abbey Theatre, Blue Raincoat Theatre Company Sligo, CBC television (The Tudors) as well as in theatre companies across Europe and the United States.
Theatre strand students on this programme can apply for a six-month Yeats Design Residency at the Abbey Theatre. Our unique partnership with the Abbey Theatre introduces core skills in all forms of stagecraft, including directing, lighting design and digital projection. The Theatre strand is also linked with the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, Slovakia. Our students spend one week here, intensively studying set, lighting and costume. Guest lecturers, well known in industry, visit and share their expertise also.
The Acting strand has partnered with Debrecen University in Hungary where our acting students may go for two weeks of masterclasses in voice, movement and acting.
