The Bachelor of Fine Arts (Acting) is a future-focused program nurturing the next generation of culturally aware actors for the international stage and screens.

The course offers intensive studio-based actor training that uses a conservatoire-style approach to prepare you to work across all areas of the profession for stage, screen and digital media, including animation and gaming.

The structure of the course allows intensive skills training and practice to take place alongside rehearsal processes and a wide variety of performance situations. With small class sizes in a studio-based environment, you will develop a creative methodology and sense of self in your artistic practice, working in concentrated workshop environments and on public productions and showings.

Breadth subjects at each year level enable you to explore cross disciplinary studies from the wider University community, accessing multi-disciplinary knowledge and skills that will build on existing knowledge or present opportunities for you to investigate and develop new interests.

You will

• Develop a command of acting skills, including body, voice, and movement
• Gain experience in acting across a broad range of performance contexts for stage and screen
• Consolidate a working methodology as an autonomous, ensemble and company actor
• Collaborate with VCA Theatre, Film and Television, and Production students throughout the course
• Develop the artistic skills to forge a successful career as an actor in the Asia Pacific and beyond.

Future pathways

Upon completion of the course, you may choose to apply for a fourth-year Honours degree. An honours year provides an intensive mode of study allowing you to master your specialisation and create a pathway into advanced graduate study options in acting.

The Bachelor of Fine Arts (Acting) is a three-year full-time degree that provides you with an intensive studio-based learning environment at the Victorian College of the Arts where you will develop holistically as an actor.

The program focuses on the rigorous preparation of actors working across all areas of the profession for stage, screen and digital media, exposing you to current cultural and methodological practices in the profession. It offers you the opportunity to engage in national and international engagement projects, building on existing expertise and approaches to industry readiness for the autonomous, ensemble and company actor.

The Bachelor of Fine Arts (Acting) will enable you to enter the profession with effective clarity, preparedness and skills. The structure of the course allows intensive skills training and practice to take place alongside rehearsal processes and a wide variety of performance situations.

Collaborative practice is regarded as an important element of contemporary theatre and is therefore integral to our training. Our graduates work at all levels of the theatre, film and television industries, and are renowned for their capacity to work creatively and collaboratively in both traditional and ground-breaking performance contexts. Graduates establish careers in professional theatre, community arts and education, film, television, radio, new media and education.

Your breadth studies

As part of your course at each year level, you can select breadth subjects either from our VCA elective subjects, or explore cross disciplinary studies from the wider University community, accessing multi-disciplinary knowledge and skills that will build on existing knowledge or present opportunities for you to investigate and develop new interests.

The breadth subjects available to commencing BFA students include those in fine arts (acting, animation, dance, production, film and television, music theatre, screenwriting, theatre and visual art), as well as music education, Indigenous knowledges, law, languages, psychology, social sciences, humanities, science, marketing and many more.

Find out more about the University’s breadth subjects

Workload

Acting requires full-time commitment: essentially 9am–6pm Monday to Friday, with extended hours during performance seasons.

Sample course plan

View some sample course plans to help you select subjects that will meet the requirements for this bachelor.

300-point program

3 years full-time

Our graduates work at all levels of the theatre, film and television industries, and are renowned for their capacity to work creatively and collaboratively, in both traditional and ground-breaking performance contexts. Students establish careers in professional theatre, community arts and education, film, television, radio, new media and education.

If the world's your stage, gain a career in a diverse range of fields, including:

• Professional theatre
• Community arts & education
• Film
• Television
• Radio
• New media
• Education

Roles

Roles as an actor (excuse the pun), include:

• Film actor
• Television actor
• Theatre actor
• Acting coach

Graduate pathways

Once you've completed your undergraduate degree, you can go on to gain employment or begin a graduate degree and work towards a professional qualification such as law, engineering or medicine. Or you could join our graduate research community and contribute to our world-changing research.

Your graduate degree will be internationally recognised, and set you apart from those who study a traditional Australian single or double degree.

Explore the graduate pathways available once you complete your undergraduate degree here.

Completed secondary education recently (within the past two years); Completed some or all of a higher education qualification; Completed some or all of a VET qualification; Applicants with wo

TOEFL Internet-based test: total score of at least 79 and scores of 21 for writing, 18 for speaking, 13 for reading and 13 for listening; IELTS: total score of at least 6.5 in the Academic International English Language Testing System (IELTS), with no bands less than 6.0; Pearson Test of English Academic : overall score of at least 58 and no PTE communicative skills score below 50; Cambridge English, Advanced/Certificate in Advanced English (CAE): Cambridge English Score of at least 176 with no skill below 169; C2 Proficiency (previously called Cambridge English: Proficiency (CPE) examination): Cambridge English Score of at least 180 with no skill below 180.