Foundation Drama: professional actor training

Cambridge School of Visual & Performing Arts (CSVPA) is acknowledged to be one of the best drama schools offering foundation drama in the UK. Our longstanding association with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) provides us with a unique opportunity to offer our students an intensive three term theatre training programme in Cambridge whilst giving them direct contact with the London theatre industry.  

The ONLY drama school associated with RADA

Under the mentorship and guidance of our RADA accredited lecturing staff, who are themselves practicing theatre professionals, our students train in a variety of disciplines and are challenged to grow both professionally and personally.  

CSVPA is the only foundation drama programme in the UK to be associated with RADA.

• Why train at CSVPA?
• The programme
• Lecturing staff
• Our success rate
• The audition process
• Gallery
• RADA Shakespeare Certificates
• The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA)

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Why train at CSVPA?

• Dynamic teaching which aims to develop skilled performance artistry in the students undertaking training.
  
• Direct connections to the professional theatre industry through both RADA and our lecturing staff.
  
• High drama school acceptance rate.
  
• Maximum of 16-20 students per academic year.
  
• Substantial one-to-one tuition in voice, movement, acting, singing and dance.
  
• Opportunities in each of the three academic terms to apply training to audience attended performances which include devised theatre, cabaret and a full scale production.

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The programme

The CSVPA / RADA foundation programme consists of 35 – 40 hours per week of lecturer driven practical tuition and is divided as follows:

Discipline	Content	Weekly time allocation
Acting	Acting theory, monologue work, scene study, improvisation, devised theatre, group and individual coaching	12 hours
Voice	Developmental vocal technique, classical text work, articulation, r.p.	6 hours plus on-to-one tuition
Movement	Body work, exploratory movement and applied movement theory (eg. Laban, Lecoq, Oida)	5 hours
Dance	Dance technique (jazz, tap, ballet) and dance for musical theatre	4 hours
Singing	Musical theatre singing training	2 hours plus one-to-one tuition (optional)
Professional Preparation	Audition technique, presentation skills, theatre industry information	1 hour
Practical Theatre History	The study and practical exploration of theatre history	2 hours
Open Studio Sessions	Independent and group studio sessions focusing on projects and assignments	5 - 7 hours

In addition to the above, students are also provided with the following:

• drama school audition preparation
• a fully staged third term production (past productions include: The Threepenny Opera, The Government Inspector, The Merry Wives of Windsor and A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
• coaching for RADA Shakespeare Certificates
• RADA master classes (at CSVPA and RADA's  London campus)
• external master classes (past sessions include: Frantic Assembly, Jeremy Stockwell, Hoipolloi)
• lectures with RADA alumni (*new for 2008/09 students)

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Lecturing staff

Jean Stewart
Head of Drama & Performing Arts

Jean manages and teaches on the Drama Foundation bringing with her more than 20 years of professional experience. 

Jean trained at The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and Glasgow University. She has worked in theatre in education both here and in Europe (Spain and Germany) for over twenty years. She has experience working in community theatre with adults and in developing new writing for young people through the National Theatre Connexions programme, working on plays such as Friendly Fire by Peter Gill. More recently Jean acted with Menagerie Theatre Company during their 2006 season of New Writing. 

Jean has been director of the drama foundation for four years and teaches the acting element of the course. She has directed a diverse number of plays throughout her career most recently Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor, Gogal's The Government Inspector and The Threepenny Opera in the summer of 2008 for the Drama Foundation programme.

Rebecca Cuthbertson
Voice Lecturer

Voice coaching includes: John & Jen (Finborough Theatre), A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer (London premiere), A Devilish Exercise (The Rose Theatre Trust), Timon and Beckett’s Shorts (Central School of Speech and Drama), Comedy of Errors (Creation Theatre, Oxford), Full Frontal Diva (Finborough Theatre). Lecturing: Cambridge School of Visual and Performing Arts and East 15 school of acting. Private coaching includes: developmental voice, text for audition and dialect/dialect-reduction.   Education: MA in Voice Studies from Central School of Speech and Drama, Bachelors degree in Education, BA (Hons) English Literature and Theatre Arts.

Bruce Knight
Singing Lecturer

Bruce studied singing and piano at the Royal Academy of Music. Since leaving he has worked as singer, keyboard player and musical director throughout the world, with many well-known artists including Liza Minnelli, David Hasselhoff, Jose Carreras, and Sir Cliff Richard. 

Bruce has made recordings for the BBC and Channel 4, and has played keyboards in the London productions of “Blood Brothers”, “Peggy Sue Got Married” (the Rod Stewart musical), “Tonight’s the Night” and “Batboy”. Having just returned from Cyprus with a production of “West Side Story” for the larnaca International Festival, Bruce is currently working on “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” at the Adelphi Theatre. He was also the rehearsal pianist for the critically unacclaimed West End production of “Behind the Iron Mask” as musical director. Bruce has worked for many production companies, including the Broadway Musical Company, New York, and Holland America cruise lines. He has also acted as musical director for the Royal Academy of Music on their Musical Theatre course.

Christopher Lane
Movement Lecturer

Theatre directing includes: John & Jen (UK premiere. Finborough Theatre, London), A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer by Eve Ensler (London premiere), A Devilish Exercise: Conjuring Marlowe at the Rose (Into The Breach Theatre and The Rose Theatre Trust), Timon (a site-specific adaptation of Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens), Beckett’s Shorts (an anthology of Samuel Beckett: play, not i, rough for theatre i). Lecturing UK: movement studies for CSVPA and Central School of Speech and Drama. Lecturing Canada: Brock University, Theatre Aquarius, the Hamilton Wentworth board of education. Education: MA in Directing with distinction from Central School of Speech and Drama, Bachelor’s degree in Education, BA (Hons) in History. 

Bernadette Wilfred
Dance Lecturer

Bernie trained at the London Studio Centre in dance, drama and musical theatre. She has worked professionally in theatre, TV and as a choreographer for the past fifteen years. Her latest credits include Lady Capulet the British Shakespeare Company’s “Romeo and Juliet”, woman 1 in “The Vagina Monologues”, and “Learners” for BBC films with David Tennant and Jessica Hynes.

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Our success rate

One of the indicators of the success of this programme can be found in the acceptance rate of our students into drama schools.  Over the past three years we have had students leave us to attend RADA, LAMDA, Bristol Old Vic, The Drama Centre, Guildhall, East 15, Rose Bruford, RSAMD, Mountview, ALRA and The Lecoq School of Mime as well as drama schools in New York, California and Madrid.

• in 2008 we had a 75% placement rate 
• in 2007 we had a 70% placement rate 
• in 2006 we had a 70% placement rate

Here are just a few of our 2008 student results:

STUDENT	GRADES	DESTINATION	STUDYING
Jonathan Burke, British	Distinction	LAMDA	Acting
Antoine Van Lierde, Belgian	Distinction	University of Hertfordshire	Film & Television Fiction
Maria Giddens, Swedish	Distinction	East 15	Community Theatre
Emma Richardson, British	Distinction	Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts	Acting
Lacey Chu, American	Merit	Bristol Old Vic Theatre School	Acting - Certificate
Jess Hughes, British	Merit	BBC	BBC Apprenticeship

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Audition process

Auditions take place throughout the year in Cambridge and London and placement offers are generally given out on a rolling basis.

We are pleased to announce that this year we will be auditioning in New York City and Toronto in the 2008/2009 academic year.

Application packages & auditions can be arranged by contacting admissions at:

Cambridge School of Visual & Performing Arts

Bridge House

Bridge Street
Cambridge
UK
CB2 1UA


Tel: +44 (0) 1223 314431

Fax: +44 (0) 1223 467773

Email: enquiries@csvpa.com

Dates for 2009/2010 auditions in both the UK and North American have yet to be determined and will be posted on the website once a schedule has been established.

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Gallery

Click on the posters below to view our photo galleries.

Productions

                      
Murder in the Cathedral      Absolute Discord           The Merry Wives of Windsor
by T. S. Eliot                        by various authors        by William Shakespeare

Studio Work


The Threepenny Opera - in rehearsal
by Bertoldt Brecht

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RADA Shakespeare Certificates explained

The RADA Shakespeare Certificates, at bronze, silver and gold levels, provide a benchmark for students wishing to improve their techniques and their confidence in delivering complex language. Each term there will be opportunities to prepare for, and take, these highly regarded qualifications.

The certificates are awarded following a successful presentation before RADA examiners at specially arranged examinations in Cambridge.

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Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA)

The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) is the UK’s leading school for the dramatic arts. Courses at RADA include a BA (Hons) in Acting, validated by King’s College, London, and Graduate Diplomas in Theatre Technical Arts.

RADA alumni include: Sophie Okonedo, Matthew Macfadyen, Clive Owen, Maggie Gyllenhall, Ioan Gruffudd, Ralph Fiennes, Michael Caine, Gemma Arterton, Sean Bean, Kenneth Branagh and many more...

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