TO BORROW a phrase from the work of its namesake, TCD's Samuel Beckett Centre for Drama and Theatre Studies is a charming spot with inspiring prospects.

The "inspiring prospects" in this case are represented by two new degrees which will commence this year a one year M.Phil in Irish theatre studies and, perhaps more unusually, a bachelor in theatre studies, which represents the first full time degree training for actors in Ireland.

A three year practical degree to train actors (12 to 14 per year) is unusual not only in this country but also in Britain. While some drama schools may have their programmes certified by universities, the idea of a university originating its own programme of this kind is still a novel one.

"At the earlier end it's allowing more emphasis on the theoretical components, which justify making it a degree programme," says Professor Dennis Kennedy, the recently installed head of the drama studies department. "The final year is devoted entirely to, production work, to performance.

He sees the new degree, an extension of the existing diploma programme and the centre's second single honour degree, as a way of producing actors who also read plays and have a knowledge of theatre history. "We have a responsibility to produce actors who can see drama and performance in its larger cultural context."

The new degree is being introduced in collaboration with the Abbey Theatre, which is sharing its resources, including a voice coach and staff directors as directors of productions. Perhaps more importantly for the centre and its students, the collaboration suggests a professional association with the training that Kennedy hopes will open up further possibilities.

"We expect, that down the road other possibilities will open up, such as the use of our students as apprentices on the Abbey stage and further integration of the national theatre with the only real training ground for actors on this island," Kennedy says.

Although a comparatively recent addition to the academic community, the Beckett Centre has grown significantly since its inception, developing a considerable reputation in the process.

Formally launched in 1984 as the Republic's first drama department and named, with his permission after the Nobel Laureate in 1986 in honour of his 80th birthday, the centre now has 220 students taught by eight full time staff and a large number of part time staff.

It can also boast a number of successful students, both past and present. Brian Brady, one of the centre's earliest graduates, is now an associate director of the Abbey Theatre and directed the theatre's recent production of The Playboy of the Western World, Karin McCully, another early graduates the Abbey's literary edit meanwhile among its current crop is Hugh O'Conor, star of The Young Poisoner's Handbook and My Left Foot.

The growth of film and TV production on this island, a considerable source of employment for jobbing actors, means that courses of the kind offered by the centre must also consider the application of live performance to electronic media. "A programme like this is well positioned to take advantage of the burgeoning of film and TV as well as theatrical performance," Kennedy says.

He sees the centre moving towards the study of performance in culture as a whole, including an emphasis on film history and screen writing. Hollywood screenwriter and script consultant John Sherlock is already teaching in TCD on this subject.

This year, the Beckett Centre will celebrate its 10th birthday and, posthumously, Sam's 90th, with a series of celebrations to include a performance of Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape with Barry McGovern and the institution of the first annual Samuel Beckett Lecture. The celebrations will help fulfil Kennedy's desire to more thoroughly connect the centre with professional theatrical life in Dublin and to involve it more directly in the current debate on the future of Irish theatre.

In addition, by focusing on Irish theatre through the M.Phil in Irish theatre studies, Kennedy hopes to place the centre at the heart of the study of history and theatre in Ireland, placing it in a professional context and opening it up to productions and directors from abroad.

"We are a kind of mediating point between professional theatre and the training ground, not just for actors, but set designers, directors, dramaturgs and theatre critics," he says. Theatre critics? There may yet be cuckoos in the nest of the Beckett Centre. .