Acting

Immerse yourself in rigorous, world-class training, explore your creative ideas and develop compelling, original work as part of an inclusive curriculum; one that celebrates diverse voices, new work, and essential repertoire.

We are renowned for developing world-leading actors and our graduates can be seen globally in theatre, film and television. Graduates include Rakie Ayola, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Ruth Jones, Callum Scott Howells, Tom Rhys-Harries, Thalissa Teixeira, Eve Myles, Rob Brydon, Dougray Scott, Anthony Boye, Ed Bluemel, Clare Dunne, Anjana Vasan and Eric Kofi Abrefa.

Our acting courses are delivered in close association with the College’s design and stage management programmes constituting an unparalleled collaborative approach in UK Conservatoire teaching. Together you’ll become the College’s in-house production company, the Richard Burton Company. Working with professional directors, the company produces around 15 shows every year, from classic plays to contemporary drama.

• You’ll work with acclaimed visiting artists who direct our performances and lead a range of classes delivering classical and contemporary actor training.
• As part of your training, you’ll also have masterclasses with some of the country’s most exciting writers, actors and directors where you can get expert advice on everything from audition technique to finding an agent.
• You’ll take part in annual showcases in Cardiff and London in front of leading agents and casting directors. In 2016, the College staged its first US Showcase in New York City, which returns in 2022.
• Our training is inclusive and embraces diversity, working with the important voices in UK theatre, that tap directly into the most prescient and significant concerns of our times.
• In our acclaimed annual new writing festival, NEW, you’ll work closely with leading writers and directors on plays commissioned by us in association with Royal Court, Paines Plough and Sherman Theatre. For 2023 we’re commissioning a new play by renowned playwright Philip Ridley. Productions premiere here at the College before moving to London’s The Yard theatre.
• You’ll work with our writer in residence, who will tutor you and support you as you develop your own creative work. Acclaimed playwright and director Chinonyerem Odimba was our very first writer in residence in 2020. Our current writer in residence is world-leading playwright Roy Williams, one of the most important contemporary Black voices in British theatre.

Jonathan Munby, Director of Performance (Drama), has been a director for more than 20 years and has worked all over the world on classical plays, new writing, musical theatre and opera.

He’s worked for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare's Globe in London, the Donmar Warehouse, Chichester Festival Theatre, and theatres in the West End.

He’s also worked in theatres in the US and Japan, including Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. and the Lincoln Center in New York.

He’s been nominated for, and won, several major awards, including a UK Theatre Award, The Helen Hayes Award in the US for ‘Most Outstanding Director’ and most recently the Olivier Award for Best Revival.