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 Producing pathway develop a robust and practical understanding of producing, across both the commercial and not-for-profit sectors. You will expand your understanding and critical awareness of current practices through extensive engagement with leading industry practitioners and academics.
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 Dramatic Writing, Directing and Performance students.
Our MA Creative Practice graduates leave with an established network of industry contacts and prepared for high-impact careers as Commercial and Independent Producers, Creative Leaders, Theatre Makers, Artistic Directors, Venue Leaders, Playwrights, Screenwriters, and Dramaturgs.
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).
Recent guest tutors on the Producing pathway have included Alison King (Turtle Key Arts), Daniel Cooper (The Yard), Joseph Smith (Stage One), Will Bridgeland (Candoco Dance Company), Katie Town (Theatre Royal Wakefield), Jo Crowley (Aakash Odedra Company), India Crawford (Arts Council), Belinda Clark (Brixton House), Ed McGovern (Crossroads Live), Davy Berryman (The Lost Estate) and David Ralf (Theatre Deli).
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:
For over 25 years Mountview has been internationally renowned for the quality of its musical theatre tuition and our alumni continue to influence and shape the industry.
Our intensive 1-year MA programme delivers focused, culturally engaged, practical performer training. The course enables graduates to confidently enter the industry, fully prepared with the skillset to assuredly navigate the demands of any performance space.
COURSE CONTENT AND DELIVERY
Students receive over 30 hours of direct teaching time each week, with a maximum of 17 students per class.
Over the first two terms you will undertake skills training split equally between the three essential musical theatre skills – acting, singing and dance – including one-to-one singing lessons and classes in acting for camera in term two. In each term, the skills work is then applied to performance projects. These projects include work on non-musical contemporary texts, and classic and contemporary book musicals.
There will be additional lectures and seminars on devising, autobiographical and solo performance, as well as on concepts such as intersectional feminist, post dramatic, queer and critical race theories, socio/political theatre practices and the performance of knowledge.
Through the first and second term, all students undertake the Creative Project, creating an original piece of theatre or film, performed at the end of term two. The Creative Project is supported and developed by one-to-one tutorials and influenced by the concepts discussed in the seminar/lecture programme.
Mountview’s MA Acting course delivers vocational, culturally engaged and practical performance training.
Over an intensive one-year programme of study, students will be thoroughly prepared for a career in theatre, TV, film and recorded arts. The MA is delivered through workshops and classes designed to expand the skillset and develop the individual strengths of each student.
COURSE CONTENT AND DELIVERY
Students receive over 30 hours of direct teaching time each week, with a maximum of 17 students per class.
Over the first two terms you will undertake rigorous skills training in all areas of an actor’s professional practice, including acting technique, voice, movement, singing, stage combat and acting for camera and recorded media. In each term, the skills work is then applied to performance projects, working with contemporary and classical texts.
There will be additional lectures and seminars on devising, autobiographical and solo performance, as well as on concepts such as intersectional feminist, post dramatic, queer and critical race theories, socio/political theatre practices and the performance of knowledge.
Through the first and second term, all students undertake the Creative Project, creating an original piece of theatre or film, performed at the end of term two. The Creative Project is supported and developed by one-to-one tutorials and influenced by the concepts discussed in the seminar/lecture programme.
Are you an international actor looking to deepen and develop your craft through an intensive exploration of classical plays?
This intensive masters degree in acting is delivered through an inspiring and exhilarating programme of classwork, scene study and workshop performances, culminating in a shared performance in our largest performance space, The Sainsbury Theatre.
Working on plays from the Shakespearean, Jacobean, Spanish Golden Age, French classical and Restoration periods you will discover how classical theatre translates across centuries, cultures and languages, and build an awareness of their historical, political and social context, and their impact on modern theatre.
You will take classes in craft skills to develop and strengthen your existing abilities and prepare you for the rehearsal process. Delivered throughout the year in long modules, these will include acting (voice, textual analysis and contextual studies), movement, music and singing.
You will progress through the application of your acquired knowledge of both theory and practice as it relates to the intelligent exploration and development of original characters. And you will also complete a thesis presentation reflecting on the relationship between your classical training and contemporary theatre practice.
Your intensive year will culminate in the staging of a Shakespeare production to which agents and casting directors are invited.
If you want to work as an actor and maker in the creative sector, our MFA acting programme offers an outstanding training. It will position you as an accomplished artist, with the ability to forge your own unique path in the industry.
In the two years you’ll be working mainly in small-group classes and will receive frequent, personalised feedback and support to advance your skill-set and accelerate your career.
You’ll develop an informed, open, yet questioning, approach to the craft of acting. This will set you up with the skills and confidence to become an independent minded practitioner with considerable professional versatility and creativity.
This masters degree in acting provides rigorous, world-class conservatoire training combined with industry-level postgraduate project work. The course is open to those from any background, but especially for those who want to shake up the ecosystem of the creative skills industry, and use their abilities to challenge the status quo and shape new landscapes for dramatic art.
This two-year Master of Fine Arts in Acting is rooted in practice and designed with international graduates in mind. Studying here will help you develop a deeper understanding of the processes of acting through an exploration of play texts from the British and European traditions, providing you with a progression route to an acting career or to further study at MPhil or PhD level....
This conservatoire-level actor training has a research focus which enables graduates to develop high-level, innovative approaches to practice. The programme cultivates originality of thinking and self-direction in order to tackle technical, interpretive and scholarly problems within the field of acting and performance.
Our arts management training equips students with the skills and experience needed for a career in the creative sector. This unique programme develops resilient, work-ready and sought-after graduates that can succeed in a fast-paced and ever-changing industry.
Why study arts management at RWCMD?
- Industry facing: our course reflects current practice as it is delivered by a team of professionals who all still work in the industry, as well as guest specialists who visit throughout the year.
- Employability: we are very proud to have maintained a 100% employment record since 2013, with students continuing to secure related jobs within three months of graduating.
- Focus on industry experience: you’ll have opportunities to gain that all-important work experience as it is a key course focus. We have a comprehensive work placement programme and arrange placements for all arts management students, both in our multi-venue arts centre + within one of our 30+ external partner organisations.
- Conservatoire-based training: you’ll learn within a music and drama conservatoire and world-class arts centre which provides unique opportunities for arts management students to collaborate on projects across the college and work with visiting artists/companies.
- Choice of three specialist pathways: choose from creative producing, orchestral management or general arts management as your area of specialism, depending on your interest and career aspirations.
Designed for recent graduates and suitably qualified mature students, our taught Master of Music (MMus) and Postgraduate Diploma (PgDip) Choral Conducting courses provide the technical training, collaborative opportunities and podium time necessary to help you prepare for a career as a professional conductor....
WHAT'S COVERED IN THIS COURSE?
- Regular individual specialist tuition.
- Vocal lessons.
- Opportunities to join orchestral conducting classes.
- A dedicated chamber choir, ‘Camerata’, managed and nurtured by students on the course.
- Involvement in rehearsals of the Conservatoire’s highly acclaimed Chamber Choir, which has a regular and highly successful recording programme.
- Many other choral singing opportunities within the Conservatoire.
- Bespoke support classes in musicianship and repertoire.
- A core career development module designed to get you thinking about your future professional plans.
- The flexibility to choose from a broad menu of Professional Development Option modules designed to help you work towards achieving your personal career aspirations.
- In MMus, a core module designed to develop your skills as a researcher or informed practitioner.
- The possibility of transferring from PgDip to MMus once you have begun your studies (but before completion of the PgDip course).
Realise your potential as a creative practitioner and train to be a professional voice coach at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. You will gain highly specialised knowledge in a range of professional contexts and develop advanced expertise as a voice coach, teacher or performer....
Realise your potential as a creative practitioner and train to be a professional voice coach at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. You will gain highly specialised knowledge in a range of professional contexts and develop advanced expertise as a voice coach, teacher or performer.
Through reading, discussion, reflective writing and practising as a coach or teacher, you will relate theory and practice and learn the ways of thinking and working of a professional voice practitioner. Through full engagement with the opportunities the course provides, you will be prepared for work as a voice practitioner in private practice, in Further or Higher Education, in business, in theatre, performing arts and media.
