On our Musical Theatre MFA course, you will gain a broad range of musical theatre knowledge and skills while performing in a variety of outstanding productions.
Supported by first-class teaching, your learning will involve a working knowledge of historical, critical and theoretical content, and the creation of performances that will be presented to agents and professionals for maximum industry exposure. You will also have the opportunity to participate in a professional placement, giving you invaluable experience of the UK musical theatre industry.
A high percentage of GSA alumni appear in the cast lists of West End shows and national tours. Last year, over 95 per cent of GSA graduates gained professional representation or professional contracts within the first year of graduating.
This is a unique and renowned course designed specifically for those who are already practising as or who wish to establish themselves as professional theatre directors.
MA/MFA Theatre Directing is open to emerging theatre directors from the UK and to students from around the world. Teaching is by a wide range of leading directors and professional practitioners from the UK and overseas. The programme benefits from its close ties with the London theatre world, which provides training expertise of the highest calibre and the professional networks that are vital to launching a career.
East 15 also runs some modules overseas, most recently in Moscow and Bali, involving specialist practical study in an alternative cultural environment.
The MA runs for one year on a full-time basis and the MFA for 24 months. For the MA, you take four modules during three consecutive terms, followed by a three-month period of independent study, at the end of which you present your Director’s Production Workbook (or, alternatively, your MA Dissertation).
For the MFA, running over 24 months, you take eight modules during six consecutive terms, followed by independent study that results in a fully resourced practical project at one of East 15’s spaces or in a London theatre (or, alternatively, an MFA Dissertation).
Each year you have the opportunity to choose four modules out of the seven or eight different options that we offer every year. The menu of modules rotates on a regular basis but always covers a range of directorial practice that is unrivalled in its diversity and will include several of the following:Shakespeare, Contemporary British Drama, Comedy, Musical Theatre and Opera, Physical Theatre, Brecht, Techniques of Adaptation, Improvisation and Devising Techniques, Contemporary Irish Drama, Rehearsal Processes and Workshops, Collaboration with Designers, Attachment (Assistant Director), The Artistic Director, Commedia dell’Arte and Directing for Camera.
Overseas modules in Bali and Thailand include: World Theatre and Theatre of the East. In Moscow, at the GITIS Institute, modules include: Stanislavskian Acting Methodology, Meyerhold and Biomechanics, Michael Chekhov.
MA/MFA Theatre Directing is open to applicants with a background in theatre directing or related fields and is specifically tailored to those seeking professional development in this area. Study is full time but some module choices enable periods of time away to pursue professional theatre work.
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.
The Advanced Devising Practice MFA at arthaus.berlin / international school offers practitioners interested in deepening their devising practice in addition to module 1-3 of the MA Devised Theatre and Performance an advanced exploration of embodied dramaturgy as practical and theoretical research into the universe of your devised work and how it relates to the worlds we live in. Additionally, you will have the opportunity to explore your own voice as a creator through the development, research, creation, presentation and documentation of a performative project over 6 months. The project can be presented in Berlin or any other location of your own choice. Please visit the arthaus.berlin website for more information.
Location: Sidcup
This course does not train actors, but develops a practical understanding of what it is to act, enabling graduates to work as actor trainers and coaches, drama and theatre practitioners, and directors of actors. Students are introduced to the principles and practices behind the training, education and support of actors and performers developing their practice.
Teaching methods include tutorials, group seminars and workshops. Practical sessions are designed to enhance understanding of acting processes and skills in pedagogy, together with associated study of contemporary issues of performance including theatre, film and television.
These courses offer specialist, vocational teaching in the field of movement for actors and production practice for movement directors. Bespoke movement placements at Central and in other professional theatre settings, such as other conservatoires, or theatre, opera or film organisations (both in Britain and internationally), are a key part of the course.
There are opportunities for the development of individual movement specialisms and their application to the work of actors. Tradition, experience, eclecticism and innovation epitomise Central’s understanding of movement training for the theatre, and these unique courses have been created in that spirit.
As a student on the MA/MFA Creative Producing programme at Central, you will:
- Real-world creative producing opportunities to develop knowledge and skills
- Networking through placements with leading theatre and arts organisations, masterclasses and industry mentors
- Student-led collaboration with writers, actors and designers on other Central MA/MFA courses
What is a Creative Producer?
The entrepreneurially skilled and culturally literate producer works in dialogue with artists to create performances and festivals, run venues and companies, manage projects, raise funds and investment, and negotiate commissions.
Central graduates have become successful producers, among them Sir Cameron Mackintosh, a name synonymous with Britain’s global pre-eminence in musical theatre, and David Jubb, whose pioneering work at Battersea Arts Centre characterises the vibrancy and originality of London’s contemporary fringe, or ‘off West End’ scene.
The courses offer real-world creative producing opportunities within Central’s production calendar and with extensive industry partners, enabling you to build on your existing practice. These skills are in ever-increasing demand in a competitive production environment.
You will undertake masterclasses in producing with key industry leaders and innovators and take an active role in the organisation of events, productions and projects, underpinned by a solid critical understanding of the cultural industries and creative producing skills, relevant theory and current research in the performance field.
While learning, you will also gain a career head start by building a vital network of industry and peer contacts.
These courses are suitable for:
- experienced stage managers or production managers who wish to develop as creative producers
- those already engaged in creative producing activities who wish to extend their knowledge in the field
- business graduates with an interest in performance arts applications
- experienced theatre or performance artists or graduates who wish to produce their own work and gain entrepreneurial skills
- arts graduates who wish to instigate or curate the work of others.
As an active participant in the MA or MFA Advanced Theatre Practice, you will:
Participate in workshops with leading professionals;
Learn to research and extend your own practice;
Launch a company, make new work, and take this to an audience beyond Central;
Extend the roles of performer, director, writer, designer, dramaturg, puppeteer, musician, artist, or creative thinker in new and unexpected ways;
Build on the tradition of theatre-making as a communicative medium of exchange, i.e. through working with digital media.
If an MFA student, you will have excellent opportunities to work for an extended period with a number of distinguished external companies.
These courses provide the opportunity for students to develop the core competencies and skills of the dramatist and scriptwriter, to explore their own ‘voice’ and develop their confidence as dramatists and scriptwriters, and to appreciate the specific media contexts within which professional writers work.
Key features are:
• Practice-based enquiry into techniques and processes for writing for stage and screen
• A series of scriptwriting projects to engage with different styles and formats of production
• Associated study of writing techniques and issues of performance in relation to theatre, cinema, television and other relevant contexts.
