Do I want to act…or be an actor?

By David Bond, head of acting, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama

There are so many acting and performance courses on offer these days it can be difficult to work out which one is right for you. I think you can start to make things clearer for yourself if you can say (hand on heart):

I want to be a professional actor and nothing else will do!

If that’s the case then you have little option than to audition for a place at a drama school. Now the good news is if you get in to drama school you will probably have the time of your life whilst getting a very thorough professional training at the hands of specialist tutors.

But you need to be very sure that the drama school you are going to is known and valued by the profession. It’s a good idea to check whether the school is a member of the Conference of Drama Schools (CDS), and the course you are taking is accredited by the National Council for Drama Training (NCDT). The chances are you will recognise many names of the schools listed straight away – as almost any leading British actor or actress you can name has probably been trained in one of them!

The courses are almost certainly going to be degree courses but are highly practical and very intensive. It wouldn’t be unusual to be working for over 30 hours a week, and when you’re rehearsing this might go up to 50!

Now, does this sound like the kind of thing you want to get involved in? Or were you rather hoping that you might chill out a little while taking your degree?! There are many terrific courses in performance and acting offered by universities – many with their own particular specialism. It would be a rare, however, for any of them to make the claim that they were in the business of training professional actors.

Right now it may be that you want the opportunity to perform, write, direct and research. By going onto a university course you are not preventing yourself from becoming an actor in due course – you may even decide to take a postgraduate acting course at a drama school when you leave university. Some actors have moved successfully from university into the acting profession without formal acting training at all, but…

Most professional actors trained as actors in drama schools

So, if you love theatre and love performing, but are not really sure about committing yourself to intensive professional actor training, consider the course that most clearly matches your interests at a university with a strong track record in that particular area. Use the three years to check out whether you want (or might be good enough) to go into acting when you graduate.

But if you know in your deepest soul that the only way you can get through this life is as an actor, then go to drama school and tell your parents not to worry because (a) you’ll make them proud of you when you’re on East Enders and at the RSC in the same week and (b) you’ll get a degree that’s every bit as valuable as that from a performing arts course at uni!