BA Musical Theatre
Entry requirements
Passes in two subjects at GCSE Advanced level
Passes in three subjects at Higher level
You may also need to…
Perform an audition
About this course
The BA Musical Theatre programme at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland offers practical, high level vocational education for exceptionally talented students who are dedicated to becoming highly skilled and employable professional artists. We are unique because we offer a quadruple-threat, conservatoire-level tuition in acting, singing, dance and music.
We offer an extraordinary combination of world class facilities, professional connections, and opportunities for collaboration, at a level and intensity that’s not available elsewhere. We keep all class sizes small so every student is nurtured and advanced through individual teaching and mentoring. You will train as a truly multi-disciplinary artist, so you will need to demonstrate high-level acting, singing, and dance ability, as well as additional instrumental skills. You will be very open to new ideas, ways of learning, and collaboration.
You need to be eager to perform, ambitious, intellectually agile, and a fantastic communicator with a story to tell. You will spend time working with directors and writers on new musical theatre, as well as traditional and contemporary productions. You’re also likely to find yourself working in professional venues and rehearsal spaces, and we try and give you as many opportunities as possible to engage with the industry. In your final year you’ll present an industry showcase in Glasgow and London, and (by audition) for our North American students, in New York city.
You will work regularly with students from across RCS; our music students form the orchestra of all of our major shows, production students provide the off-stage and backstage support, and, as well as filming with our film students in our studios and on location, you may find yourself on BBC production sets, with guidance and support from BBC Scotland.
Modules
Year 1 – Focus on skill development
Your contact and independent study time features core practical skills in acting, music, dance and voice. Each core skill involves various forms i.e. Music content includes Choir, Theory, 1to1 instrumental studies, piano lab.
Underpinning this is a strong focus on your professional practice with theory, research, reflection, professional Development Planning, song & monologue portfolio development, personal marketing, collaborative practice and performance classes. This is effectively your fifth discipline.
In Year 1 collaboration is a key component and you will be involved in a unique cross conservatoire module which gives you the opportunity to work closely with students from across RCSc to develop practical collaborative skills.
You will assessed for each core module, in both continuous process and exam/submission formats. There will be written submissions for the more theory based subject areas and exams for more performance based skill areas.
Year 2 – Focus on synthesis & Performance Process
Core skills classes and professional practice modules continue to support new learning areas and project work including collaborative instrumental labs, songwriting, producing, budgeting, acting for media, musical theatre scenes and an opportunity for public performances of devised musical theatre work. You will also have opportunity to expand your learning via options modules offered across RCS.
Year 3 – Focus on Performance and Professional Practice
The final year concentrates on developing your performance experience, profile, marketing, audition techniques and industry connections. Skills classes augment dedicated rehearsal process for two main stage musicals (book and contemporary). You have the opportunity for an elective choice in actor musicianship performance or other choice elements. Professional practice modules continue to underpin your learning, with strong emphasis on employment skills.
Tuition fees
Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:
Extra funding
The Royal Conservatoire is able to offer a number of entrance scholarships which are awarded as part of the audition/selection process on the basis of merit and financial need. Please see our website for more information - https://www.rcs.ac.uk/studyhere/scholarships/.
The Uni
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
School of Drama, Dance, Production and Film
What students say
We've crunched the numbers to see if overall student satisfaction here is high, medium or low compared to students studying this subject(s) at other universities.
How do students rate their degree experience?
The stats below relate to the general subject area/s at this university, not this specific course. We show this where there isn’t enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
Drama
Teaching and learning
Assessment and feedback
Resources and organisation
Student voice
Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
After graduation
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Drama
What are graduates doing after six months?
This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.
Top job areas of graduates
What about your long term prospects?
Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.
Performing arts
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£8k
£10k
£16k
Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.
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While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?
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