Overview
The MA Acting for Stage and Screen offers a comprehensive pathway to cultivate skills and understanding of the craft of screen and stage acting. It is suitable for those who are passionate about acting, have previous performance training, professional experience or an alternative, relevant creative practice. You can apply for this course as an MA (1-year course) or an MFA (2-year course). The MFA takes one extra year; apply by choosing the MFA option when you click 'apply'.
What you can expect from this course:
- Skills building: You will be introduced to a range of practical approaches to acting, text, voice, movement, and performance for stage and screen, preparing you for different professional contexts.
- Reflective practice: You will be supported in the application of rigorous research processes to enhance the development of your own practice.
- Industry-connection: The programme offers opportunity to encounter and work with professionals in the theatre and film industries, enhancing networking and career prospects.
- Interdisciplinary collaborations: You will be exposed to a range of cross-course projects, helping you to develop a creative and professional network
The course is structured across three semesters. Semester A focuses on Skills Building, giving you a strong practical foundation. Semester B centres on Research and Experimentation, supporting you to test ideas, take creative risks, and situate your practice within wider cultural and contemporary contexts. Semester C is dedicated to Dissemination and Production, culminating in a final public project that prepares you for professional work beyond the university.
This course is in Clearing
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Course modules
The MA Acting for Stage and Screen course takes a theory-through-practice-based approach as we explore different approaches to acting across a range of different media. From acting to the camera to acting on stage, or acting across digital media, you will develop a personal interdisciplinary acting toolkit. You'll develop the necessary industry-facing materials needed for a career in the twenty-first-century theatre industry.
NOTE: Modules are subject to change. For those studying part time courses the modules may vary.
Download course specification
Entry requirements
What makes this course different

Collaboration and interdisciplinarity
You will work alongside the wider UEL postgraduate performing arts community, including directing, filmmaking dance, music, and creative enterprise. This ensures your practice develops within a rich, interdisciplinary creative environment.

Practice underpinned by theory
UEL offers a university-based approach to acting that combines practical enquiry with critical reflection, so you can connect creative choices to wider cultural questions, contemporary debates, and contexts.

Ideas focused
The course encourages the development of individuals as creative artist. Our aim is to nurture flexible and versatile actor-preneurs who can apply their craft across different media, spaces and platforms.
Performing Arts postgraduate courses at UEL
At The University of East London we offer a range of postgraduate degrees in our Performing Arts department - designed to help you become a skilled, reflective practitioner in your chosen field.
What we're researching
The results of the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF), a six-yearly national review of higher education research, underlined the quality and impact of our work. An impressive 92 per cent of UEL's overall research was recognised as world-leading, internationally excellent or internationally recognised (REF 2021).
Dr Tom Drayton’s research into metamodern theatre, for instance, is world-leading and he is the author of the first book about metamodern theatre; Dr Evi Stamatiou’s influential work on actor training and inclusive pedagogies is built on two decades of international experience as an actor and creative; Carrie Mueller’s research focuses on participatory performance practice with a focus on dissensus and transgression; and Dr Claudia Brazalle’s scholarship and ongoing bodily/movement practice are deeply influenced by her cross-cultural dance and performance training.
Our arts department fosters a vibrant and collaborative research community, including our Centre for Inclusion and Creative Practice, Centre for Creative and Cultural Practice and Centre for Social Change and Justice. Additionally, we place importance on the development from postgraduate study to further research for those interested in continuing their academic journeys – postgraduate students contribute to our cross-institutional Research Roundtables and public student-led conferences, too.
Find out more about ACI research and our postgraduate research.
Your future career
The MA Acting for Stage and Screen course at UEL prepares you for a dynamic career as a versatile 'actor-entrepreneur' in the fast-evolving entertainment industry. Future careers may include: professional stage actor, professional screen actor, director: media and/or stage, creative producer: media and/or stage production, or interdisciplinary arts project leadership.
Industry links
Our academic staff are professionals in the field. As such, the course is built upon current industry experience through the network of industry links within the London theatre scene and beyond.
Previous collaborations over the past few years have included work with Camden People’s Theatre, The V&A, The Space, Applecart Arts, Ardent Theatre Company, The Old Church, The Bread & Roses Theatre and more.
Graduate employers
London’s theatre scene is like nowhere else in the world, and our acting postgraduate course sets you up to take your own place in the contemporary creative industries. Graduates of this course have joined theatre companies and collectives, worked in London theatres, taught drama at various levels and gone on to further postgraduate study.
Job roles
Graduates of this course have gone on to become professional stage actors, professional screen actors, and actor-entrepreneurs with their own solo performance works.
Further study
After studying your Master's or MFA in Acting for Stage and Screen, you could go on to further study with our postgraduate research courses:

It’s allowed me to develop because it’s enabled me to work with people from all different walks of life.Graduate
MA Acting for Stage and Screen, 2022
How you'll learn
This acting course suite will develop knowledge, cognitive, and practical skills and experience to develop dynamic and adaptable actors for stage and screen, who can work across traditional and non-traditional contexts. If you pursue a Master’s in acting for stage and screen, you will gain advanced technical and creative skills relevant to your specialist focus within professional practice. Core skills will be developed through collaboration and in-context application across all programme pathways, and industry-specific skills will be developed and applied within the industrial context of your workplace, placement context, or chosen community/professional setting. Whether you are enrolled in the MA acting for stage and screen or the MFA pathway, you will engage in leading creative and collaborative projects that are designed and implemented by you, supported by teaching staff and industry mentors, to create an impact for you and the public, communities, and collaborators with whom you are working. The study will be practice-led, with a focus on developing a range of research skills and models for creative practice, applied in diverse professional contexts. You will also develop contextual awareness and responsiveness, examining the influence and impact of your work on and upon the many contextual layers interconnected with it, including but not limited to the social, cultural, historical, economic, technological, environmental, and ethical.
Guided independent study
When not attending timetabled lectures or workshops, you will be expected to continue learning independently through self-study. This will typically involve skills development through online study, reading journal articles and books, working on individual and group acting projects and preparing coursework assignments and presentations. Your independent learning is supported by a range of excellent facilities including online resources, and specialist facilities, such as game labs, the library, the full Microsoft Office software, including MS Teams, and Moodle: our Virtual Learning Environment.
Academic support
Our academic support team provides help in a range of areas, including learning and disability support. You'll learn from and work with staff who are both academics and professional actors with industry knowledge.
Dedicated personal tutor
When you arrive, we'll introduce you to your personal tutor. This is the member of staff who will provide academic guidance, be a support throughout your time at UEL and who will show you how to make the best use of all the help and resources that we offer.
Workload
Project development, outcomes, and impact will be captured by:
- Interactive portfolios
- Literature reviews
- Critical evaluation
- Research and development repositories
- Presentation, workshops, and seminars
- Reflective journals
- Collaborative practice-led research
Details of the requirements and content for portfolios and assessments will be provided in guides for each module.
Portfolios will take the form of digital and physical documents presented online using web publishing tools and or physical portfolios that have been printed and curated into a portable portfolio. From this practice, you will demonstrate and reflect upon the process of creating and preparing a body of acting work for professional display, and further development in production and or industry.
Your timetable
Your individualised timetable is normally available to students within 48 hours of enrolment. Whilst we make every effort to ensure timetables are as student-friendly as possible. For our Postgraduate performing arts courses, seminars are scheduled in the evenings between 17:30 and 21:30 to enable study alongside work. Timetables for part-time students will depend on the modules selected.
Class sizes
To give you an indication of class sizes, we usually recruit around 15 students per year. You will attend lectures and seminars together and regularly work in smaller groups and individually in workshops and practical sessions.
How you'll be assessed
This is a practice-based and industry-focused postgraduate acting programme with a weighting of roughly:
- 70% process, performance and production
- 30% critical reflective writing
Depending on your course modules, your assessments may include coursework essays, collaborative and individual presentations, professional placements, reports, portfolios, other creative work and, of course, most importantly – performances.
Assessment frequently includes the creation of portfolios, comprising production reports, written reports, extended essays, and live practical assessments relevant to disciplinary and interdisciplinary practice.
Portfolio content will depend on the module assessment task in which the portfolio features, consisting of a wide variety of media from digital content, such as video and audio recordings, or digital images, which capture the production and performance/ media of practical work and technical outcomes. Portfolios will be digital documents presented online using web publishing tools.
Details of the requirements and content for portfolios and assessment tasks will be provided in module guides for each module. To allow for diversity and inclusivity across course clusters, it will be appropriate, based on the relevant course subject, to further stipulate the form of assessment required i.e. artefacts and performance/ media pieces captured as evidence digitally and or non-digital formats (e.g. published printed book), which may subsequently be documented digitally (i.e. coursework portfolio). Portfolios will take the form of digital and physical documents presented online using web publishing tools and or physical portfolios that have been printed and curated into a portable portfolio.
As a key part of your postgraduate studies in acting, you will demonstrate and reflect upon the process of creating and preparing a final professional body of work for professional display, and further development in production and or industry.
Campus and facilities
University Square Stratford, London, E15 1NF
University Square Stratford is one of London's most modern and well-equipped campuses. It serves 3,400 students and is the base for our courses in law and criminology, dance and performing arts, and the Master of Business Administration (MBA).
Modern facilities include: performing arts spaces; three performance studios; the Harvard lecture theatre, with live lecture capture technology; the multimedia Weston Learning Centre; a dedicated MBA suite and teaching space; a 300-seat specialised tiered lecture; and a simulated courtroom for mooting experience.
The campus is close to Stratford developments such as Westfield Stratford City and the Theatre Royal. You can be in Canary Wharf in 20 minutes, the English National Ballet in 15 minutes and Sadler's Wells East in 8 minutes.
Who teaches this course
This course is delivered by the School of Arts and Creative Industries
The teaching team includes qualified academics, practitioners and industry experts as guest speakers. Full details of the academics will be provided in the student handbook and module guides.
What our students and staff say

I can't think of a more exciting place to start your career, build your networks and access world-class professional theatre than in East London.
Professor Dominic Hingorani

I have really enjoyed sharing some modules with students from other programmes; it allows us to foster collaborations both for the final project but also for the future.
MA Acting for Stage and Screen student, 2023
















