Welcome to the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland!
Welcome to the BA Performance in British Sign Language and English programme!
We are very pleased to welcome you onto this unique course at the RCS. Staff are excited to welcome you and work with you over the next three years and we hope you are as keen to meet and work with us!
On this programme you now have the opportunity to grow and develop as an artist and also, from day one, to establish yourself in the profession of your choice.
The three years of this programme will be exciting and pass quickly. We ask that you bring with you enthusiasm, commitment, openness and bravery. We look forward to working with you and finding innovative ways to impact the theatre and film industry. Long before you graduate you will be engaging with the profession in a variety of contexts. The possibilities for you as performers – and for our industry as a whole – are vast and radical if you commit yourself to them.
We are here to enable you to develop your creative potential, and look forward to working with you to develop the range of skills, knowledge and understanding required to flourish as a performer in a constantly changing profession. Some of you will access the work through sign language some of you through spoken language. There is a lot of discovery to be done and we ask that you commit yourselves to taking risks and embracing the diversity of language and communication in the making of your work here at RCS.
To help you make the most of this opportunity we have produced a Programme Handbook which you will receive at the start of the year. Please make sure you read or watch this and anything you don’t understand, just ask! We will have weekly drop in sessions where you can come and chat to the team or wider members of the RCS so do not worry if there are things that feel unclear especially at the start. We will work together to make them clear.
Your first week timetable can be found here –BA Perf BSL Welcome and Induction Schedule 2023
There are a number of events organised during this week which will help you prepare for your studies and give you an introduction to the Conservatoire. You will also have the opportunity to meet your Head of Programme, your Head of Department and other key members of staff. These events are compulsory and it is important that you look carefully through the schedule and identify those that apply to you. You will matriculate (register on your programme) on Monday 25 September. More information about this process can be found here: https://portal.rcs.ac.uk/matriculation/.
BA-Performance-in-BSL-and-English-Programme-Costs 2023-4
You are also required to make a one-off payment of £100 to help defray the cost of the scripts, photocopying and teaching materials that you will be issued with at various times throughout the three years of the programme. This sum will be collected from you by a member of the Programme Support team at matriculation.
We look forward to you joining the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the BA Performance in BSL and English Programme.
The BA Performance Team
BA Performance in BSL and English – required programme materials
Clothing and footwear
The majority of your classes throughout your performance degree will be practical and will mean that you need to wear suitable clothing that enables you to be free to move around. We are not prescriptive about what you wear but it would be advisable to get into the habit of wearing loose clothes suitable for movement for all practical classes. Outdoor shoes should not be worn in class and jeans are not suitable for movement work. You will be provided with a locker where you can keep appropriate clothes and footwear.
Theatre Visits
As an aspiring performer we expect you to attend theatre, cinema and other cultural events that will inform your work. Please budget up to £100 for this over the course of the year. Student discounts, free previews and other ticket offers should keep your costs well below this but there is a great deal on offer in Glasgow and you should see as much as possible. We would also expect you to go to the theatre in Edinburgh, Dundee and even further afield so transport costs could also be significant, although we will support these wherever possible.
If you require a BSL translation of this information please email hello@rcs.ac.uk to request this.