The Bavarian Academy of Dramatic Arts (Akademie für Darstellende Kunst Bayern - ADK Bayern) is a private Specialist Academy in Regensburg, with status equal to a state academy for purposes of financing, state oversight, content and standard. It is an institution of higher vocational training leading to a stage maturity degree. Training is free to students. The decisive prerequisite for admission is outstanding talent.
Applicants can choose from three degree courses:
The Acting course
Theater or film? The Bavarian Academy of Dramatic Arts mainly trains actors and actresses for the theater. Stage acting is the most technically demanding discipline, and requires the most intensive training. But in order to fully address this increasingly diverse professional field, the training course offers introductions to performing in the fields of film/television and digital media.
The Stage Direction course
The stage direction course at the Bavarian Academy of Dramatic Arts is oriented towards training to work as a theater director. Besides attempting to evolve the individual artistic profile of the stage direction student, great importance is also attached to the guidance of actors with due consideration for the actor's perspective. Only one or two training places a year are offered in this degree course.
The Theater Education course
The Bavarian Academy of Dramatic Arts offers one of the most complete training courses for qualification as a theater educator available anywhere in Germany. A unique feature of the course is that trainees are also given the opportunity to gain extensive experience in the Stage Direction and Acting courses, and some of their training includes working with the theater direction and acting students. Only one or two training places a year are offered in this degree course.
All degree courses at the Bavarian Academy of Dramatic Arts are designed as four-year, full-time study courses. In the first year, students of the three courses receive instruction together as far as possible, the intention being to teach the same basic principles of the acting arts to everyone without regard to disciplinary boundaries. In the second, third and fourth years, lessons, classes and workshops then specialize in the various contents of the courses for which the students are enrolled. No provision is made for switching courses during training. Applicants must decide on the course they wish to pursue when starting their studies and apply for that course.
At the end of their fourth year of study, students take the final examination: this consists of two parts, one practical and one theory.
Upon successful completion, students recive a professional qualification degree certificate.
Graduation from the Acting course at the Bavarian Academy of Dramatic Arts is equivalent to obtaining a university (Bachelor's) degree.
