Level 1

Level 1 consists of compulsory subjects, taught over a period of twelve weeks. Some of these are shared with students in the acting and directing courses. A number of multilevel modules provide opportunities for networking and collaborating with students from more senior seminars. Along with 80% attendance and active participation, to complete their modules and gain admission to the next level, students must also display a progressive development in their skills and abilities.
To transit to the next level, each student must produce a small dramatic sketch with young people, and also a written assignment that reflects critically on practical and theoretical approaches to a particular aspect of theatrical work. 
Level 1 lasts for one semester, as a trial semester. The admission procedure to the next level determines whether students are permitted to continue their course of study. The level cannot be repeated.

Play seminar: Experimenting with play

Students from the Theatre and Film subject areas get to know each other through play. This is an initial block component, calling on the elements of body, voice and space, with no expectations of performance excellence at this stage. Play is viewed as the foundation for creative activity in general.

Movement/Training

Basic training in movement, and exploring body connections. This seminar focuses on response, tension and relaxation, and building physical strength. Students are trained in concentration and being fully present in the ensemble, and in awareness of their physical perceptions.

Types of acting

Students from multiple specializations jointly acquire the fundamental (play-)acting and conceptual skills needed for their future creative work. By working on a project assignment, students learn from each other through debate, improvisation and research. This is a multi-specialization subject (Directing, Theatre Education, Acting), providing students with the fundamental (play-)acting and conceptual skills needed for their future creative work.

Singing/Voice

This course develops the student’s singing voice in group processes, based on a playful approach to musical and voice training material. Students discover the pleasure of singing as the starting point for future stage and musical projects. Application of the basic principles of developing the singing voice and physical and postural training for singers provides an easy, relaxed and bold path to acquiring a genuine singing voice.

Speaking

Theoretical principles of oral communication and the fundamentals of voice anatomy and physiology. Basic acting exercises for functional development, use of the voice in dialogue with gestures, and articulation. The fundamentals of applied phonetics, stage elocution. The fundamentals of effective speaking of a text. Reflection on and description of the speaker’s resources and their effective deployment on the stage.

Play laboratory

Introduction to working with young people in theatre education practice. This course ends with a stage presentation created by the students.

Theatre education forum

This is an opportunity for lecturers, students and some theatre education alumni to get to know one another. Excursions to selected events and institutions. Introduction and context of the present programme structure and content. Experimenting with peer supervision, focusing and visualization techniques as a way of discussing and reviewing personal milestones.

Open forum

Vehicle for student discussion with lecturers from the various disciplines (directing, dramaturgy, acting, theatre education and scenography) on current issues in the world of theatre, broadly or narrowly defined.