When you apply for a BA (Hons) Theatre Practice course at Central, we ask you to submit a digital portfolio (or folder) before your interview. This allows us to make your interview bespoke so that we can chat with you about your specific interests and experience. A portfolio carefully selected by you will help your confidence so you can own your interview.
Read on for tips on how to prepare your portfolio.
Your portfolio is about you and your work
We want to see a collection of strong pieces that best represent you, your work, experience and interests. Portfolio content will depend on the course you’re applying for but you might include photographs, sketches, drawings, production notes, cue sheets, sound recordings, textiles, paintings, spreadsheets and production programmes.
Curate your portfolio
It’s important that you curate your portfolio which means carefully selecting items. We recommend fewer, strong pieces (aim for 4 minimum, 7-8 maximum).
By a ‘piece’, we mean a single project, production or individual piece of work. Think of each piece as having a story of its own. You may have one or a few pages of mixed media that describe the journey of the project. Lay your portfolio out clearly to make that story easy to follow. You can also annotate items to say why you’ve included them. Annotations might be useful prompts for you in your interview.
Show us your process
We are just as interested in your process as we are in the finished work. Use your portfolio to show us the stages of your project and how it changed or evolved.
While we like to see the journey from first idea or brief through to completion, not all items in your portfolio need to be finished. If there’s a project you are currently working on and excited about, feel free to include it!
Experimentation and problem-solving
Experimentation is a big part of what you will do during a degree at Central. We know that experiments are made up of both successes and challenges, so we like to know about the challenges you faced in your projects and how you overcame or learnt from them. These make great talking points for your interview and demonstrate an ability to reflect on your work which is essential in your degree study.
Teamwork
Collaboration is another key aspect of training at Central and respect is one of our core values. If you were working on a project as member of a team, then you should draw attention to your own contribution and acknowledge the work of your team members and collaborators.
Passion
You don’t need to have all the experience already – we can help you with that during your degree. Show us passion for the career you are interested in entering and an enthusiasm for learning.
We interview everyone that applies and consider every portfolio. Your portfolio and our conversation with you at your interview are what matters most when we make decisions about entry to the course. We recognise that people have different ways of learning and sharing ideas, which is why we place such emphasis on seeing how you present your work and your thinking, which is unique to you.
