3-Year Bachelor course: • Acting and Artistic Production
Stand-alone Semester courses:
• Acting and devising 1
• Acting and devising 2
The BA Acting & Artistic Production education at Nord University is a leading international training programme for actors who have the ambition to become creative artists. The three years of study aims to develop actors with the skills to push the boundaries of theatrical performance and gain the ability to take charge of their own artistic careers. Former students from the school have achieved success within every part of the performance industry as actors, playwrights, directors, scenographers and composers. Former students are actively working within many of Norway’s main theatre venues as well as for national and international theatre companies and film productions companies. Many independent production companies have been founded by former students with several of them gaining recognition via awards and critical acclaim.
Theatre Pedagogy
The journey of the education is based on the pedagogy developed by the theatre practitioner Jacques Lecoq at his school École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq where many of our teachers trained. This pedagogy is built on centuries old theatre traditions and seeks to rediscover and explore humanity and the natural world through a process of observation, re-enactment and reinterpretation. This work takes place through a highly structured journey where the importance of body, space and play are emphasised through work in movement, improvisation, and creation. Students also receive instruction in text work, voice, film, music, singing, and professional development.
Three Exciting Years of Study
The first year is about discovering and exploring the actor’s body as an instrument. The goal is to increase the student’s awareness and flexibility, open new paths for movement, and experience the world and others in play. Students receive instruction in improvisation, movement, acrobatics, stage combat, mask work, text, voice, singing, and music. Each week, students are given a task to create their own work to present to the instructors.
Style Work and Creation
In the second year of study, students explore acting and creation through various genres and stylistic directions. Students devise original performances inspired by working in specific directions that open up to exploring specific forms of expression including gestural theatre, physical storytelling, mask work (commedia del’arte), tragedy, bouffon, mystére, grotesque realism, drama, absurdist theatre, text work, comedy, and theatre-clowning.
Creative Actors
The third year focuses on developing students as creative actors through workshop-based work in various artistic directions, with school instructors and guest lecturers. Students work with text, both classical and contemporary, with object theatre, film, and their own productions. They are challenged to figure out what they want to say and how they can express this in an artistic form. The third year concludes with a graduation performance. In recent years, it has been performed for audiences in Verdal, Trondheim, and Oslo.
Music
The programme includes various music subjects as an important part of the curriculum. Instruction is given in ensemble singing, solo singing, collaboration, and composition. Musical work is also integrated into parts of the theatre training
Industry Collaborations
We are in contact with academic environments in the Nordic countries, Europe, and beyond. We host visits from professionals as guest lecturers and theatre companies with extensive international experience. In 2019, we started a partnership with the Lecoq school in France, where 3rd-year students participate in a workshops.
As part of the 3rd year of study our we invite outside professional artists to collaborate with the students to create a full scale production. Some of the artists we have collaborated with are Simon T. Rann and French company Compagnie de L’Étre (2020 & 2024), American/Norwegian company Wakka Wakka Productions (2023), British company Theatre Ad Infinitum (2019), and New International Encounter – NIE (2017 & 2018), Figurteatret I Nordland, and France’s Compagnie Philippe Genty (no longer active).
