Msc.Authorial Acting

Authorial acting, or acting with an emphasis on authorial creativity and pedagogy is a course that has been offered in English as well as Czech since 2015. We want to continue to offer this possibility. The program is largely based on the original Czech version, though it has its specific features.
Acting with an emphasis on authorial creativity and pedagogy stands in true interdisciplinary fashion with one foot in the camp of acting, and the other in that of authorship, where we understand acting to be the capacity of a person for conscious action and play(ing), and authorship to be the capacity for original thought and imagination, in an artistic as well as a wider sense. At the same time, this is the study of dramatic play as the stimulus and aim of acting and authorship. We study these phenomena not only with the full knowledge of their dimensions and overlaps which we could call artistic and aesthetic, but also with a view to those we could call ethical, social, philosophical, psychological, and especially pedagogical. Pedagogy is a part of the study of psychosomatic disciplines, and of the method of their teaching. We therefore study acting in an authorial sense, which relates to the education of an individual to achieve a creative personality, creative in the artistic as well as other fields.

The master's degree studies widen and especially deepen the topics studied in the bachelor's program. The master's degree studies are, like in the bachelor's program, largely empirical, based on gaining experience in the main dimensions of human expression. Study takes place through:
1) the experiential getting-to-know of the psychosomatic disciplines, and through the rigorous reflection of the associated topics and problems,
2) integration of the gained proficiencies in authorial, or authorially-scenic, forms,
3) theoretical and historical contextualisation

The foundation psychosomatic disciplines are education in voice, speech, movement, dialogical acting and play. The integrating disciplines are authorial reading and authorial presentation. Theoretical subjects are chosen in order to provide the necessary wider horizon for the psychosomatic and creative proficiencies gained. Transparency and the public presentation of the studies (authorial reading, presentations and performances, the Autorská tvorba nablízko (Authorial creation up close) festival) are also emphasised, in order to enable current and long-term processes of making things more conscious, verifying them, and fine-tuning them to make them more precise. A speciality of the study of authorial acting with an emphasis on authorial creativity and pedagogy is dialogical acting, the legacy of the department's founder professor Ivan Vyskočil, which is now already being studied, developed and applied by the second generation of followers.

A graduate is able to:
– practically and theoretically orient themselves with some quality in the field of authorial acting and psychosomatic disciplines.
– Pass on their discoveries and proficiencies in authorial acting and psychosomatic disciplines to interested individuals from the ranks of the professional as well as 'lay' members of the public, publish these and share them, and enter into expert discussion on these topics.
– Come up with, develop, realise and publish their authorial ideas, topics, forms, and this alone as well as in co-operation with others. They will have the competence to lead a creative team.
– Write their own authorial texts with scenic potential, but also with the potential to be used in the context of radio, television, videoperformance or film and so on.
– Work with others' texts and ideas in an authorial way.
– Consciously act with their own expressive media, like their voice, speech, gesture, movement, body and so on, in a psychosomatic (complete, holistic) way, as with natural parts of their personality, this both in the artistic as well as non-artistic fields.
– Perform in public in a quality way, in the context of theatre (or more widely, art) as well as outside of this.

In general:
The applicant should be in good physical and psychological condition.
The applicant should be in good condition as regards talent and character, and these should be capable of further development and cultivation.
It is necessary to have a need for learning and a capacity of learning, for studying, and for partaking in teamwork.
In particular:
We test the prospective student's degree of talent, and their ability for development, in the foundation disciplines of psychosomatic study, especially voice, speech and movement. Further, we test the ability to distinguish between different parts of acting on stage, the ability to consciously act in a playful way, the ability to act together with someone else, the ability to react authentically, the ability to improvise (these are the ability requirements for the study of acting). Last but not least, the ability to formulate authorial ideas is also important (authorial texts).

The presence of all of these skills in and of itself does not guarantee an authorial character, however, and this is why it is necessary to conduct an interview as part of the application procedure. (The subjects addressed here are the prospective student's motivation for study, their general knowledge of culture, art, philosophy, public social and current affairs.) This allows an assessment of the character and character potential of the individual.
There is usually just a single round of entrance exams, and they take place in English.

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