Interested in learning carpentry skills and techniques? Do you want to get hands-on experience in carpentry this summer? Aged between 16-19? Apply now for our free carpentry course.
In this free, three-day course you will:
We are committed to diversity and access by prioritising engaging young people that we recognise are currently underrepresented in technical theatre:
Mountview’s one-year Postgraduate Diploma in Stage and Production Management is designed for those looking to enter the profession with limited theatre experience, consolidate existing training, or progress to the next stage of their career.
The course particularly welcomes career-changers and graduates from a wide range of academic backgrounds who have developed an interest in stage and production management through university drama societies, amateur theatre, or other practical performance-making experiences. It is also well-suited to applicants who have already undertaken relevant training or built-up industry experience and are seeking further professional practice, a recognised postgraduate qualification, or the opportunity to strengthen and refine their skills within a conservatoire-style environment.
Students work in a fast‑paced, professional production setting, engaging with a broad range of productions while developing essential practical, creative, organisational and critical thinking skills. The programme balances hands-on production work with theoretical and professional development, preparing students for a sustainable career in the creative arts.
The Diploma offers a clear route to increased employability and professional progression. For those already working in the industry, it provides the opportunity to deepen expertise, expand professional networks, and move forward with confidence into more advanced roles.
COURSE CONTENT AND DELIVERY
This is a one-year full-time vocational course and is ideal for students who wish to develop their experience and skills in management, theatre production arts or technical theatre through practical work in professional theatre environments.
The course is delivered through:
The course is taught by Mountview’s resident team of tutors, alongside industry professionals who work alongside the students on productions. Previous guest tutors have included professionals from Punchdrunk, Hamilton, The Globe and National Theatre.
This 2-year, part-time MA is a creative and challenging exploration into the power of socially engaged arts. We aim to develop the next generation of cultural leaders and interdisciplinary theatre practitioners. Graduates will lead the way in providing meaningful, inclusive arts experiences that address social, political and educational issues in a broad range of settings.
The course offers a holistic programme that invites creative reflection on the power of storytelling for social transformation. Students address complex issues in critical and creative ways, considering the role of arts in education, migration and exile, health and building communities. You’ll engage with course learning through practical exploration, collaboration, group discussion, independent study and reflective practice.
Delivered part-time, we welcome applicants from all backgrounds, including professionals working in youth, community and/or education settings as well as performers looking to develop and diversify their practice.
VISITING AND GUEST PRACTITIONERS
In addition to the core Mountview team, students work with visiting lecturers and practitioners from a range world-class organisations. These include Turtle Key Arts, Punchdrunk Enrichment, Complicité, Clod Ensemble, Unicorn Theatre, Clean Break, Theatre Peckham, Candoco Dance Company, Brixton House, Wales Millenium Centre, Tate Modern, Glasshouse Theatre and Access All Areas.
Topics covered by visiting lecturers are varied and include:
Students are supported to discover placements for their independent research projects based on their specific interests and emerging ideas and practice. Recent partnerships include Newham Children In Care Council, Little Fish Theatre Company and Tropical Pressure Festival, among others.
COURSE CONTENT AND DELIVERY
There is one day of in-person teaching each week, with one additional Friday and Saturday each term.
Throughout the course students develop skills in critical thinking, facilitating, devising, leading, producing, discussing and teaching creatively and imaginatively. Study involves workshops, lectures and seminars as well as independent collaborative and solo practice/research. Students are assigned weekly reading materials to digest course themes and engage in learning through independent study.
Reciprocal and collaborative learning is embedded into course practice. Students are provided with opportunities to design and lead practical workshops for one another, to bring topics for facilitated discussion with their Course Leader and to choose areas of focus for specific assessments, based on their interests and experiences.
Practical areas of study include collaborative and ensemble techniques, forum theatre, arts for wellbeing, devised theatre, inclusive and trauma informed practices, arts and money, decolonial feminist approaches, facilitating in multilingual and multifaith spaces, and ethics in artistic practice.
Students gain practical experience running workshops in schools, both in Peckham and further afield – previous locations include Spain and Nigeria.
Students engage in a wide range of texts such as Theatre of the Oppressed by Augusto Boal, Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom by bell hooks and Theatre for Living: The Art and Science of Community-Based Dialogue by David Diamond.
Assessments are varied and include essays, talks, education packs, presentations, and workshop samples.
Overview
Weekly acting classes for LGBTQIA+ people at The Two Brewers, Clapham. Mondays: 6:30–10pm with award-winning theatre director, Andrew Keates
Queer Theatre invites you to join our weekly acting classes for LGBTQIA+ people, held every Monday from 7pm to 10m at the iconic queer venue, The Two Brewers in Clapham. Led by award-winning theatre director Andrew Keates, our classes welcome LGBTQIA+ people of all acting abilities, from seasoned professionals to enthusiastic beginners. What matters most to us, is building a queer community of performers in a place where we can play and grow together.
Our acting classes serve as a queer theatre lab, a safe and creative space where LGBTQ+ theatre-makers can come together to:
Hone Acting and Performance Skills: Learn about performance styles and acting techniques.
Explore Through Play: Participate in creative improvisation games and exercises designed to foster self-discovery and collaborative play.
Delve into LGBTQ+ Material: Work with scripts, themes and devise work that reflects LGBTQIA+ people, experiences and themes.
Build a Supportive Network: Make friends and join a nurturing community that supports your artistic and personal growth.
Discover Opportunities: Gain access to Queer Theatre's array of events, such as our Queer Play Reading Club, Queer Variety Night, trips, social events and networking opportunities.
Industry Showcase: We dedicate several months a year to preparing our acting class students to perform in our OutCast showcases of queer actors and writing. We invite friends, loved ones and people from the performing arts industry such as agents and casting directors to see our work and many have received agent representation and professional opportunities as actors and writers.
Every year, Mountview awards a range of scholarships and bursaries to support students with the costs of study, made possible thanks to generous individuals, trusts and foundations.
Scholarships are awarded on the basis of talent, potential and financial need and designed to ensure that cost is not a barrier to study.
In 25/26, 1 in 3 students received a scholarship with the average award being £3,250.
We usually receive far more applications for scholarship funding than we have available, so we encourage you to seek other funding opportunities as well and will provide support and guidance to do so.
Find out more about Funding and Scholarships at Mountview.
Writing West Midlands is once again teaming up with Birmingham Libraries to recruit the next two Poets Laureate for 2026-28:
The Birmingham Poet Laureate and Birmingham Young Poet Laureate are honorary posts appointed by Birmingham Libraries and Writing West Midlands.
The successful candidates should be residents of Birmingham, or work or study in the city, and will be able to show their commitment to writing and sharing their poetry. They should be comfortable with the idea of sharing with an audience and speaking about their work. They will be expected to be an ambassador for the city of Birmingham and its many communities and areas.
The Birmingham Poet Laureate and Birmingham Young Poet Laureate are asked to undertake a small number of honorary duties during their tenure, including writing poems to commemorate significant moments. They will be expected to share their work at events and to encourage an interest in poetry across the city. We are particularly keen that the Poets Laureate use their work to encourage people to engage with the city’s public libraries.
While the posts are honorary and the roles are voluntary, payments are sometimes made for work that is particularly time consuming. The adult Poet Laureate in particular will be supported by Writing West Midlands to develop their creative work.
The position of Birmingham Poet Laureate was the UK’s first ‘city laureate’, with the first appointment being made in 1998. In 2005, the position of Birmingham Young Poet Laureate was set up.
In-person interviews for both posts will take place on Saturday 19th September 2026 (Adult post in the morning, Young post in the afternoon). Interviews will take place in central Birmingham. An appointment event will take place on Sunday 11th October 2026.
We have a limited number of £10 tickets available for Cleansed at the Almeida Theatre.
Tickets are available from 21 - 24 July at 7.30pm.
Click the link below to access up to 2 tickets.
I love you now.
I’m with you now.
I’ll do my best, moment to moment, not to betray you. Now.
That’s it. No more. Don’t make me lie to you.
Two lovers and two siblings.
How far are they prepared to go to prove their devotion? And will their love survive when subjected to the most extreme violence?
Sarah Kane was one of the most original and controversial voices in British playwriting history. Rebecca Frecknall (A Streetcar Named Desire; Cabaret) directs Kane’s masterpiece which explores the brutality of desire and asks what happens to love when there’s nothing else worth living for?
Age Guidance: 16+
Running Time: TBC
Content/Production Warnings: This production includes torture, murder and violence, including sexual violence, depictions of sex and nudity, drug abuse and drugging, depictions of suicide, homophobic and misogynistic language and blood. This production also includes blackouts, flashing lights, latex and loud, sudden noises.
A UK-wide free training programme for ages 18–30
Dive into the world of theatre-making and shape the future of theatre with OV Theatre Makers, a free, six-month training programme.
With the support of director Joseph Hancock and leading professional theatre makers, you’ll explore contemporary theatre-making practices to provide you with a toolkit of skills to begin developing your own work and career. Developing a broad range of theatre making skills from writing and devising to directing and producing you will then have the chance to showcase your work in a Scratch Night at a professional theatre venue.
Travel to London will be required and we’re able to support with costs if needed.
The programme will include:
Mountview is currently the only UK drama school to offer Directing, Dramatic Writing and Producing as three distinct, specialised pathways within a single, unified Creative Practice MA framework. The course is designed for multi-hyphenate practitioners who are excited by collaboration and meeting the demands of the twenty-first century creative industries.
By bringing directors, writers and producers into one ecosystem, the course mirrors the professional world by fostering creative partnerships through shared engagement with modes of collaboration, creative enterprise, dramatic structures and critical contexts.
Students on the Dramatic Writing pathway develop an in-depth knowledge of dramatic structures and the core competencies for writing across different forms and styles. The course develops an understanding and critical awareness of current practice through engagement with industry practitioners and academics. You will be mentored by award-winning playwright Roy Williams OBE (Death of England National Theatre, Sucker Punch Royal Court), who oversees aspects of the course as Distinguished Visiting Artist.
The course concludes with the opportunity to put your learning into practice through the staging of a public facing, fully-realised festival of new work. VIEW Festival allows students to develop their pathway specific skills while also collaborating closely with the Producing, Directing and Performance students.
Our MA Creative Practice graduates leave with an established network of industry contacts and prepared for high-impact careers as Playwrights, Screenwriters, Dramaturgs, Directors, Creative Leaders, Theatre Makers, Artistic Directors, Commercial and Independent Producers and Venue Leaders.
STAFF AND PRACTITIONERS
The Creative Practice teaching team is led by Hamish Pirie and Dawn Ingleson as Joint Course Leaders, alongside Roy Williams as Distinguished Visiting Artist. Dawn worked extensively at the National Theatre as a creative producer and has also taught at LSBU, while Hamish’s directing credits include work at the Royal Court, Donmar Warehouse, Paines Plough and Traverse Theatre. Roy is a multi-award winning writer whose credits include Death of England: The Plays (National Theatre), The Lonely Londoners (Kiln and Jermyn Street Theatre) and Sucker Punch (Royal Court, Olivier Award nomination).
In addition to working alongside the core teaching team, MA Creative Practice students also benefit from industry masterclasses specific to their pathway, led by the world’s most prestigious creative powerhouses. Recent MA Creative Practice sessions have featured:
British Academy of Dramatic Combat Standard Level Certification in Unarmed Combat
Want to try your hand at fighting for stage and screen and gain an industry recognised certification in the process? Then join us for Dramatic Combat this Summer!
This 5-day intensive course focuses on the fundamental skills and principles required for performing effective, believable and safe unarmed (hand to hand) combat for stage and screen- the most frequently used skill in any actor-combatant’s toolkit.
The training will enable participants to gain understanding and confidence in physical techniques and performance skills, participants will learn how to:
The training is progressive and culminates in a fight performance which is assessed by a British Academy of Dramatic Combat Examiner. Participants perform a choreographed fight with a partner within the context of a scripted scene. If successful, performers will attain a BADC Standard Level Certification in Unarmed Combat, which is industry recognised by Equity and Spotlight.
Due to the nature of the course minimum training hours are required to enter the Examination therefore you must have 100% attendance for the full 5 days. Please note that the course is intensive, very active and requires sustained mental and physical engagement each day.
Stage and screen combat practice is designed to be inclusive for the management of pre existing conditions or learning needs. Please mention this information on sign up so the the tutor can be informed prior to the start of the course.
