Devised Theatre Company

Tuition fees

Devised Theatre Company course fees for 2023/24 are £1,595. Fees for 2024/25 are TBC.

Funding & Scholarships

We want to make the performing arts as accessible as possible.

Anyone who faces financial barriers to participate in the Junior Conservatoire can apply at any time, whether at acceptance to a course or during the course, for a bursary or scholarship.

Please take the time to refer to this bursary and scholarship criteria.

For anyone who requires a bursary or scholarship please email JuniorsDDPF@rcs.ac.uk and you will be sent an application form.

We will try to support as many students as possible to attend the Junior Conservatoire training and therefore may not be able to cover full student fees.

These funds are currently supported by the generosity of individuals and charitable trusts including:

• James McAvoy Drama Scholarship
• Agnes Allan Bursary
• Bill and Margaret Nicol

We want to ensure everyone has an opportunity to apply for the Devised Theatre Company programme so we will audition every student who applies on time.

When to apply

All applications should be completed online and there is an audition fee of £45. If an applicant is applying for multiple courses they will only need to pay one audition fee. If you need financial support to pay for the audition/s fee please contact us at juniorsddpf@rcs.ac.uk

Question?

If you have any questions about the Junior Conservatoire or the application process, please don’t hesitate to contact us at juniorsddpf@rcs.ac.uk

The Audition:

At the audition, we are looking to identify pathways for you towards your aspirations to develop your abilities in devised theatre. This may be through Junior Conservatoire, or through Short Courses at The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Dates: Auditions will be held between the 5th -7th August 2024.

We aim for all our auditions to be in person at one of the campuses of The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

The auditions consist of two parts: a group workshop and performance, and a solo interview with the panel.

Group Workshop:

Participants will participate in a 1 hour workshop. This consists of a range of games and creative tasks that use your skills in physicality, voice, collaboration, and connecting the activities to learning points in the artform.

In this part of the audition, we are looking at your ability to work creatively and generously with others, share and listen to ideas, and articulate how what we are doing together links to Acting.

Sharing of Prepared Performance:

Together we will watch everyone’s prepared performance material based on one of the five stimulus sent to you in advance of the audition. In this part of the audition, we will be looking at how you’ve identified themes and ideas in the stimuli material you chose, and how you’ve connected these to the performance you make. We will also be watching to get a sense of how you use your voice, body, and other skills you have to communicate your ideas through performance. We will be able to see the choices you’ve made and it will give us an insight into your current skillset and where we can support you further.

Following the central value of this programme that we make collectively and collaboratively, we will then discuss what you made with the group, and together identify strengths and areas we can develop together. We will be looking at the whole group for how you share and listen to others ideas, and your generosity and curiosity in this process.

We will then ask you to perform your piece again with an alteration. For example, this might be removing all the spoken words in it, or listen to some music and let that change how you present it. In this process we are looking to see how you play with new ideas and make bold changes quite quickly. Sometimes this redirection will make things trickier for you as it might feel a bit unnatural, or sometimes it will help make things easier for you as an performer. We will want to hear your reflection on how the redirection changed things for you.

Preparing your Performance Material:

A few weeks before your audition date, we will send you a selection of about five different stimuli to choose from that will inspire the short performance you make. The workbook will contain full instructions and a number of prompts to help you make your short performance. Please select one of the stimuli we send you and prepare it for performance in the audition when you meet with us. We want you to perform this from memory and present it as if you were performing it for an audience. We will also ask you why you selected the stimuli material.

Your Interview:

After the group section of the audition, we will speak to each applicant one at a time. This is an opportunity for you to discuss what you love about devising performance, your ambitions, your other interests and causes you’re connected to, and what you think you need to become a better theatre-maker. We are just as passionate about performance as you, so feel free to ask us questions too.

Throughout the interview we will be getting a sense of what we think you need to develop, what you already do, how committed to drama you are, and whether you have the stamina, drive, and passion yet to train intensely at Junior Conservatoire each week.

What to wear

You should come to class wearing clothes suitable for movement work, and which do not restrict the body.

What to bring

Please bring along bottled water to keep hydrated during rehearsals. You may also find it useful to bring a notepad and pen to take notes.