Bachelor of Fine Arts (Theatre) (B-FATH)

The Bachelor of Fine Arts (Theatre) provides full time immersive and rigorous, intensive studio-based training for the 21st century performer and theatre maker. The course celebrates the creative potential of the performer as a collaborative artist and prepares students to become accomplished performers and highly skilled devisors of original work.

This course provides students with ongoing training and skills development in performing, devising, movement, voice, collaborative practice and dramaturgy to support the performance and creation of new work. Students experience a range of theatre-making provocations - solo and ensemble practice, site-specific work, applied theatre and contemporary performance. Students will develop their own practice as theatre artists informed by an understanding of historical paradigms and an application of current methodologies. Students have opportunities to engage in regional and national projects, including a site-responsive project, an intensive residency with a regional company, and multiple public performance seasons.

The program culminates in the creation and performance of fully produced devised works in which students collaborate in pre-professional companies to conceive, develop, rehearse and present original works. These works are showcased to invited industry guests.

Students will learn from highly experienced staff and collaborate in a range of live and digital theatre making contexts with invited industry professionals. Theatre students also collaborate throughout the course with VCA students from other disciplines and schools at the VCA.

The Bachelor of Fine Arts (Theatre) enables graduates to enter the profession with the capacity to contribute to Australia’s theatre ecology and instigate change and leadership with clarity and skill. Graduates work at all levels of the profession and are renowned for their capacity to work creatively and collaboratively, in both independent and mainstage professional theatre as well as in community cultural development, film, television, radio, new media, and education.

Students are able to study 50 credit points from other disciplines on offer at the University of Melbourne allowing VCA Theatre students to graduate with a range of skills and knowledge and multidisciplinary approaches to bring to their arts practice and careers.