Questions and answers

All your education questions answered by Brian Mooney

Can you clarify the situation regarding the acting/drama programmes on offer at undergraduate level in Trinity College Dublin? I have been involved in a drama group for a number of years now, and hoped to study drama there following my Leaving Certificate next June. I have heard contradictory stories about what is and is not now on offer.

Many students who take undergraduate drama programmes are members of local theatre groups, youth theatres and community groups and have experience in acting, directing, and design. Some have evenwritten their own scripts. But for many, experience is gained by participating in the school play.

Drama is a generic term that covers all kinds of performance-related activities, from the study of dramatic literature, to theatre history, to practical theatre. The drama degrees offered at Trinity College Dublin cover all three approaches, combining the history and theory of theatre with courses in performance, directing, set design, lighting design, costume design, devising, technical theatre and playwriting. In the final two years students opt to specialise in one or more practical areas, according to their particular aptitude. The aim is to equip students with an extensive knowledge of world theatre, highly developed analytical abilities and a range of practical skills.

Actor training is an intense and physically demanding technical training in voice, movement and acting. Although the acting course at TCD is closed to new entrants as of 2008, this type of technical training will be offered through Dublin City University and the Gaiety School of Acting. Drama degrees, on the other hand, seek to nurture and develop students' intellectual abilities with the aim of broadening their career prospects in a highly competitive arts industry.

Resources from Trinity's former acting course are now being redirected to their single honour degree in drama (TR025) to deepen and broaden students' practical experiences of theatre. The emphasis on this course will not be on technical training, but on research, development and experimentation. The course aims to nurture the talents of the theatre makers and thinkers of tomorrow.

Trinity also offer a degree in drama studies with another subject such as English, film studies, music, sociology, and a range of modern languages, (TR001). In the first three years of this degree, students spend half their time studying drama, and may opt to devote the entire fourth year to the subject. This is also a very popular choice of course among students, and in the final two years no distinction is made between students of the two degree programmes in terms of options chosen.

Entry to both degrees is through the CAO. In addition, applicants to both drama degrees will be called for an interview and a group workshop. The single honour course students, will, in addition, be invited to present a portfolio of the directing/design work or an audition.

Drama students have a high employment rate in the arts upon graduation. Some walk straight into jobs, while others opt for further specialist practical training or postgraduate study. Drama degree courses have produced actors, directors, designers, writers, radio, television and film producers, teachers, university lecturers, managers in various arts centres and industries - and even a successful novelist.

Other colleges apart from Trinity offering equally good degree courses in drama include University College Cork, Queen's University Belfast, University of Ulster and Dublin Institute of Technology. There are also drama within the liberal arts degree at UCD. Full details of these programmes are available on www.qualifax.ie.

Brian Mooney is a guidance counsellor at Oatlands College, Stilorgan, Dublin. E-mail questions to bmooney@irish-times.ie