Are you committed to a career in an art practice that creatively engages with your community? If so, the MA Art and Social Practice is ideal.

Artists in the 21st century increasingly find themselves working in participatory settings where skills in creative and social engagement are essential. This programme addresses these changing needs and facilitates a shift in thinking away from conventional ideas about where art practices are located and how work is disseminated.

The course offers focused provision enabling you to develop an appropriate level of knowledge and research to inform practical work, together with the critical and analytical processes and technical skills required to effectively deliver a project in the public domain.

Special features
- Taught by an inter-disciplinary team of artists and specialists from social anthropology, social and collaborative art practices and sculpture, who work across a range of local, national and international contexts, from urban centres to remote and small communities
- You will have the option to meet in real life during the annual Winter School located in rotating locations in the Highlands and Islands
In the final stage of the module you will choose your own mentor from local, national or international specialists
- You will meet leading figures in the field, from Scotland, the rest of the UK and internationally, through the annual Virtual Symposium, visiting Lecturers and guest speakers

The ArtsEd MA Acting course offers rigorous and intensive vocational actor training that enables you to harness your potential as a highly skilled, creative and autonomous actor.

You will be immersed in a dynamic and rigorous acting programme that is challenging and robust. Our team of experienced industry professionals will work with you to hone and develop your actor’s craft, enabling you to be prepared and resilient for the demands of the contemporary industry.

Inclusive and questioning, the course gives you techniques to work with classical and contemporary texts with imagination, truth and specificity. The course is vocational and highly practical where techniques are acquired through the year in classes, workshops and performances. Both theatre and screen acting is explored. The MA in Acting enables its graduates to have an autonomous, responsive process that is alive to the world around it, flexible to the needs of the industry, and full of the actor’s imagination and creative potential.

GSA is one of the UK’s leading drama schools. This, part-time, two-year online learning programme provides the opportunity to gain an academic qualification from a leading drama school within a top-ten university from the convenience of your own home. GSA has enjoyed nearly twenty years of distance learning provision to a global community of students.

Uncover more about who you are – discover who you could become.

Ideal for those in full-time employment, our MA Theatre course from the Guildford School of Acting (GSA) provides a gateway to an exciting future without the need for regular attendance on campus. Our course allows you to study at your own pace through online learning, so you can pursue your passion for theatre and develop industry connections around your existing commitments. GSA is accredited by the Federation of Drama Schools (FDS). You’ll have unlimited access to our virtual learning environment which will be supported by industry-leading professionals and passionate academics.

On our practice-based Stage and Production Management MA course, you’ll work closely with fellow GSA students to deliver stellar productions.

Through intensive seminars and workshops, you’ll be introduced to stage management and technical disciplines and begin your professional development planning. You’ll then work on a wide variety of production projects across performance spaces within the University and at external venues. There will also be opportunities to take on senior production-critical roles as deputy stage manager, stage manager or production manager on our public productions, under the guidance of our experienced and industry-connected staff.

You’ll also have the chance to complete an industry placement and your professional development planning will culminate in presenting your work at a London showcase event.

As a musical theatre performer you must be passionate, creative, and able to form a deep connection with your story, character and audience.

Guildford School of Acting (GSA) is one of the UK’s leading accredited drama schools, providing dedicated conservatoire training within a purpose-built environment.

Successful entry on to GSA’s MA Musical Theatre means you will be part of a carefully selected and committed ensemble of performers-in-training, equipped with the self-discipline and motivation to master new skills and refine existing capabilities. Building on our international reputation in musical theatre, this course will enhance your skills with opportunities to launch your career.

Our intensive MA Acting course offers you practical actor training focusing on technical skills in acting, voice and movement. These support a range of rehearsal projects, screen acting projects and public performances. You’ll also take professional development workshops and classes in audition techniques.

Your performance opportunities will include a devised project, a final public production led by a production team of industry professionals, and a Digital Screen Showcase.

We keep our cohorts small to ensure you get personal attention and contact from our expert teachers, who have extensive first-hand experience in professional theatre in the UK and the US. Our campus boasts great transport links to London, so you’ll be close to the heart of the UK theatre, London’s West End.

East 15 Acting School’s MA Acting is a challenging course that encourages the development of a personal methodology based upon East 15’s unique practices.

On one level, it is a thoroughly practical, highly intensive, vocational course. On another level, it is a thought-provoking, life-changing reflection on the function and art of the actor – exploring techniques from some of Europe’s most influential practitioners as well as innovative professional practice from the UK and internationally.

MA Acting is a specialist course of one academic year with additional work on marketing students to the industry with a showcase. You will need discipline and motivation to work at an advanced level. Beyond these, the requirements are abundant energy, insatiable curiosity and a robust sense of humour.

Some students may already possess a university degree (not necessarily in a related discipline) whilst others will have established themselves in other career paths and now seek to change the direction of their lives towards that of a professional actor.

This course also attracts professional actors who feel the need to reflect on their practice, extend their range and skills, refresh their creativity, increase their professional contacts and gain academic recognition.

This course is taught at our picturesque Loughton Campus.

In association with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

This Masters programme allows composers and writers to focus on how new opera is created, developed and performed. Part of an exciting partnership between Guildhall School and the Royal Opera House, the programme centres around the creation of a 25-minute chamber opera which is fully staged in Milton Court Studio Theatre.

The programme admits three composers and three writers each year. During an initial induction module, students pair up into composer-writer teams. Each team develops a short opera scene, before going on to create full chamber operas. Two smaller projects allow you to follow your own creative pathway: in poetry, prose, dramatic or film script (writers), and in vocal or instrumental/ electronic works (composers).

The programme focuses on the collaborative nature of opera making, and each composerwriter team is supported by collaborative mentoring. Students also take part in one-to-one tutorials, production seminars and creative development workshops.

Led by Julian Philips, Head of Composition, Stephen Plaice, Writer-in-Residence, and Laura Bowler, composition professor, teaching is enriched through regular seminars with visiting professionals from the opera world including conductors and directors, singers and instrumentalists, designers and stage managers.

The programme collaborates closely with Guildhall’s award-winning Opera Department, led by Dominic Wheeler, with Guildhall opera singers forming the cast for the chamber operas created by composer-writer teams.

Practical experience of opera during the year is hugely augmented by the programme’s association with the Royal Opera House, which provides opportunities to see productions in rehearsal and performance, and to meet and network with key resident and visiting practitioners.

The Masters in Music Therapy aims to develop students’ musicianship and personal potential, and equip them with the knowledge and skills to work as a registered music therapist.

On this programme, students gain experience working with adults and children alongside qualified music therapists on placements in a variety of settings including special and mainstream schools, and with people who experience:

- Mental health problems
- Dementia
- Learning disabilities
- School exclusion
- Communication delay
- Autism
- Acquired brain injury or stroke
- Social, emotional and behavioural difficulties
During the programme, students must undertake a minimum of 40 hours of individual personal therapy as a requirement from the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). This is an additional cost not covered by the tuition fees (funding support is available - see our Postgraduate Funding page for more information).