Musical Theatre

Musical theatre with a specialism in film acting is a performance training that prepares you for the increasingly fluid world of professional practice, where performers working in musical theatre are also expected to be credible and skilled on screen. Musical theatre at its core combines dance, song and acting into a unified performance form, demanding technical proficiency across all three disciplines as well as the expressive range and storytelling intelligence to inhabit a character within the heightened world of the form. Film acting brings a distinct set of skills, particularly the ability to work with a camera, understand screen presence and navigate the technical context of a film set.

At the University of Chichester you will study for three years full-time, developing specialist practical skills in both stage and screen acting from your first year. You will train in musical theatre dance, singing and acting techniques alongside the specific demands of working in front of a camera, building the technical and expressive range that a versatile performance career requires. You will have the opportunity to engage with both on-site and off-site performance experiences, from smaller-scale to larger productions, developing an understanding of the full range of professional demands you will encounter.

Graduates pursue careers in musical theatre on stage in West End, regional repertory, touring and international productions, as well as in film and television drama, commercials, music video and the growing range of performance contexts that combine live and screen-based elements. Many also work in education, community arts, youth theatre and arts health settings where performance skills are applied in facilitative rather than solely presentational contexts. Postgraduate training in acting, musical theatre or screen performance is a natural route for those who want to develop a more specialist or advanced professional practice.