Acting Schools in South Africa

Actor training in South Africa sits in three places: university departments such as UCT and Wits that admit by audition into four-year BA degrees (UCT also runs a three-year vocational Diploma), private film-and-performance schools such as AFDA that publish NQF levels and SAQA IDs for their degrees and certificates, and independent theatre-based courses such as the one-year Market Theatre Laboratory course in Johannesburg.

Source: humanities.uct.ac.za/centre-ctdps/programmes-undergraduate-p

BA / Diploma at a public university

UCT describes a four-year BA in Theatre & Performance (professional orientations graduate with a BA that is Honours equivalent) and a three-year Diploma in Theatre & Performance for applicants who do not qualify on matric results but show exceptional potential at audition. Source

NQF-registered degrees and certificates (AFDA)

AFDA publishes its Bachelor of Arts in Live Performance as NQF Level 7 (SAQA ID 35936) and its Higher Certificate in Performing Arts as NQF Level 5 (SAQA ID 111403). Source

Independent one-year course

The Market Theatre Laboratory runs a full-time one-year course (February to November) that may be followed by an invited nine-month advanced second year; no formal award is stated on the page. Source

Teaching languages. The programmes researched teach in English.

Admissions and auditions. Degree programmes combine school-leaving results with an audition: UCT requires a UCT application, an online audition portfolio with self-tape and an in-person call-back; Wits requires a booked in-person audition with a short monologue and a minimum admission points score; the Market Theatre Laboratory asks for a one-minute monologue video, a certified matric certificate and a creative writing sample. Source

Nothing here establishes visa, work-permit or credit-transfer eligibility. Check current rules with the official sources below.

• Department of Higher Education and Training
• South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA)