Performing & Production Arts (Extended) Diploma Level 3

From day 1 of the course you are treat­ed as are expect­ed to con­duct your­selves as a pro­fes­sion­al the­atre com­pa­ny. This means that you are giv­en free­dom to be cre­ative and ful­ly explore your strengths and lim­i­ta­tions as a per­former. It also means that a high lev­el of pro­fes­sion­al­ism is expect­ed at all times; some­thing that is vital when work­ing in this com­pet­i­tive and often tough indus­try. The major­i­ty of your learn­ing will be explored through prac­ti­cal work­shops, rehearsals and per­for­mance. You will cov­er some ele­ments of the­o­ry that are embed­ded into prac­ti­cal ses­sions to ensure that the­o­ry under­pins your prac­ti­cal explo­ration of dif­fer­ent per­for­mance styles, gen­res and your own char­ac­ter development.

5 GCSEs at grades 4/C or above includ­ing Eng­lish, plus Dra­ma grade 6/B or above. 

Alter­na­tive­ly a Mer­it in a rel­e­vant Lev­el 2 Diplo­ma, and a GCSE grade 4/C or a pass for func­tion­al skills Lev­el 2 Eng­lish. You will also be required to com­plete a suc­cess­ful inter­view and audi­tion of a pre­pared mono­logue of your choice.

A Mer­it in your first year is required to enter the sec­ond year Extend­ed Diploma.

Need to re-sit? No prob­lem. If you don’t achieve a Grade 4/C in GCSE maths or Eng­lish, you’ll resit the exams with us and we’ll help you prepare.

Wor­ried about your grades?

What­ev­er your results, we want to assure you that exten­u­at­ing cir­cum­stances will be con­sid­ered should you not have the grades indi­cat­ed above. 

We will review each appli­ca­tion on a case-by-case basis to ensure you get a place on the course most suit­able for you.

One of the ways we do this is through a very effec­tive ​‘6 weeks to suc­cess pro­gramme’ that oper­ates from the first day you start your course. This includes sup­port such as (but not lim­it­ed to):

• Allow­ing you to change cours­es if you change your mind in the first 6 weeks
• Mov­ing you between course lev­els if you are find­ing your cur­rent lev­el too easy / too hard
• Incor­po­rat­ing Eng­lish and maths GCSE resits in to your timetable if you don’t meet the grades you need
• One-to-one reviews with your aca­d­e­m­ic tutor to ensure you are pro­gress­ing and achiev­ing well

Our course enquiries and admis­sions team are avail­able remote­ly through­out this unprece­dent­ed peri­od. They can be con­tact­ed at enquiries@​stamford.​ac.​uk should you have any fur­ther questions.

You will take part in prac­ti­cal assess­ments of your per­for­mances and assessed rehearsals with eval­u­a­tive dis­cus­sions to help you improve and per­fect your styles for future employ­ment. You will also be assessed through reflec­tive jour­nals and research port­fo­lios, pre­sen­ta­tions, writ­ten essays, debates and interviews.

You will be required to wear plain black cloth­ing that is easy to move around in, as well as sen­si­ble footwear (indoor train­ers, jazz shoes, bare feet) dur­ing prac­ti­cal work­shops. There may be some addi­tion­al costs to cov­er the­atre trips, offi­cial scripts and pro­fes­sion­al workshops.

At Lev­el 3 you will be expect­ed to com­mit to rehearsal sched­ules and some addi­tion­al hours in order to gain both teach­ing and per­form­ing experience.

Assessed pub­lic per­for­mances usu­al­ly take place in the evening when you will be required to arrange your own trans­port from the per­for­mance venue (either col­lege or a local theatre).

On suc­cess­ful com­ple­tion of this course, you will be equipped with the skills to audi­tion for a num­ber of path­ways including:

• Top Dra­ma Schools offer­ing fur­ther pro­fes­sion­al train­ing and degrees. Pre­vi­ous­ly, stu­dents have gained places at insti­tutes such as: Mountview, Guild­ford School of Act­ing, The Roy­al Cen­tral School of Speech and Dra­ma, The Liv­er­pool Insti­tute for Per­form­ing Arts to name a few.
• Uni­ver­si­ties offer­ing degrees in Per­form­ing Arts, Act­ing, Cre­ative Arts, Musi­cal The­atre, Dance and oth­er cre­ative cours­es. Pre­vi­ous­ly, stu­dents have gained places at uni­ver­si­ties such as: Lin­coln, Stafford­shire, Northamp­ton, East Lon­don, Coven­try to name a few.
• Our new and exclu­sive* Lev­el 4 Pro­fes­sion­al Diplo­ma in Per­for­mance. This is an excit­ing course accred­it­ed by the Uni­ver­si­ty of the Arts Lon­don which enables you to gain a Lev­el 4 (HE) qual­i­fi­ca­tion whilst being part of our Uni­ver­si­ty Cen­tre Stam­ford (UCS) Shed­light The­atre Com­pa­ny. This course is aimed at stu­dents who wish to gain more expe­ri­ence work­ing in a pro­fes­sion­al set­ting before audi­tion­ing for top Dra­ma Schools or pro­fes­sion­al work. This course is unique in that it is ful­ly fund­ed for any­one who is 18 or 19 years old at the time of enrol­ment. Please see our Lev­el 4 Pro­fes­sion­al Diplo­ma in Per­for­mance for more details.
• *In 2018 – 19 we were one of only 10 cen­tres nation­al­ly approved to run this course. As a pilot cen­tre we have been able to help shape and devel­op this qual­i­fi­ca­tion to ful­ly meet the needs of our students!

You will study the fol­low­ing units:

1^st Year-

• Prin­ci­ples of Performance
• Engag­ing with an Audience
• Intro­duc­tion to Pro­fes­sion­al Practice
• Crit­i­cal and Con­tex­tu­al awareness
• Pro­duc­tion Skills and Context
• Per­for­mance Skills and Context
• Prepar­ing for Spe­cial­ist Study
• Col­lab­o­ra­tive Per­for­mance Project

2^nd Year-

• Devel­op­ing Per­form­ing and Pro­duc­tion Skills
• Prepar­ing for Progression
• Explo­ration of Spe­cial­ist Study and Context
• Extend­ed Per­for­mance Project