ArtsEd offers inclusive, detailed contemporary, BA actor training for Stage, Film, Television and Audio. Preparing you to become world-leading artists, theatre-makers and performers in all genres, by focusing on the ever-evolving developments in the creative industries.
Our tutors are inspiring, passionate industry professionals who are committed to work with you to craft the core skills you will need as an actor.
Dynamic, diverse and rigorous, this vocational three-year BA (Hons) degree in Acting course will develop your technical skills through practical classes, workshops and performances, motivating and challenging you to become an inventive and imaginative actor. By exploring imagination, improvisation, storytelling, play, text analysis, character realisation, vocal technique and movement skills you will discover how to develop a truthful, responsive and resilient individual acting process.
Our training creates graduates who are ready for a career in the industry. This can be seen on our Screenwork page, which features recent examples of original films and showreels, which students produce in their third year.
This programme is validated by City, University of London and you will receive a City, University of London award on successful completion.
Our full-time Foundation Acting course offers a student-centered approach to learning with a strong focus on the individual and their formative journey into training and beyond.
Led by Sam Gibbs, a Theatre Maker and Actor Trainer, the course, based in specialist studios at the Lyric Hammersmith, provides rigorous training that prepares students for the next step in their professional career.
Regular sessions with industry professionals ensure that the intensive actor training is blended with invaluable insights into the demands and opportunities in the performing arts sector. Recent visiting tutors have included Mike Bartlett (Earthquakes in London, King Charles III), Noma Dumezweni (Disney’s The Little Mermaid Live, The Undoing, Harry Potter & the Cursed Child), Sean Kempton (Cirque du Soleil), Matthew Xia (Artistic Director of Actors Touring Company) and Morgan Lloyd Malcolm (Emelia, The Wasp).
The variety of the material used in classes and projects initiates discussions on relevant topics in today’s world, that promote students’ personal development and understanding. Tutors cultivate a safe, but challenging, environment to encourage students to experiment, explore and embrace their training journey, its failures, and successes. Students are supported in choosing, and discovering, a path that is right for them at the conclusion of the course.
Our full time foundation course in Musical Theatre develops your skill and confidence in all three of the essential disciplines required for this demanding training. Delivered by tutors from our BA course, this is an excellent foundation for progression into a full-time training course.
Ensuring that you excel in all three disciplines our Full Time Foundation includes intensive one-to-one singing tuition, ensemble dance training in jazz and ballet and bespoke audition preparation. Throughout the course you will be working with our highly experienced ArtsEd tutors, who have a very thorough understanding of what drama schools are looking for in auditions.
This programme is validated by City, University of London and you will receive a City, University of London award on successful completion.
ArtsEd offers rigorous, exceptional triple-threat training. An exciting and extensive curriculum prepares you to become a world-leading performer across all disciplines and in all genres.
Our tutors are all inspiring and experienced industry professionals, committed to working with you to develop your full potential in singing, dancing and acting.
Dynamic and diverse with a focus on excellence, this vocational three-year BA (Hons) Musical Theatre course will develop your technical skills through practical classes across singing, dance and acting, one-to-one singing tuition, projects in singing, dance and acting, and final year performances.
This programme is validated by City, University of London and you will receive a City, University of London award on successful completion.
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.
Over 25 years ago Mountview created the UK’s first specialist three-year musical theatre training.
Decades later, our alumni continue to influence and shape the industry and Mountview is internationally renowned for the quality of its musical theatre tuition.
Early application is strongly encouraged.
COURSE CONTENT AND DELIVERY
Study takes place over three 12-week terms a year for three years. Students work in small classes and receive over 25 hours of direct teaching time each week, including one-to-one singing lessons.
The course is delivered through classes, projects, workshops and performance opportunities. During the course students engage in a range of performance projects, including Shakespeare, contemporary plays and musicals. The first half of each term is devoted to skills classes whilst in the second half of each term these skills are applied to performance projects.
In the second year, skills are further explored in collaboration classes which include peer integration and team teaching to enhance your creativity and help you to make connections between subjects.
Additionally, there is time given to tailored ‘surgeries’ to focus on detail and help develop independence and confidence in each individual’s practice.
Mountview’s vocational BA actor training will thoroughly prepare you for a career in theatre, TV, film and recorded arts.
The course develops technical acting skills through a combination of workshops and performances. Classes are designed to inspire imaginative engagement and develop practical experience, encouraging students to take risks, develop strengths and expand their acting range.
Early application is strongly encouraged.
COURSE CONTENT AND DELIVERY
Study takes place over three 12-week terms a year for three years. Students work in small classes and receive over 25 hours of direct teaching time each week.
The course is delivered through classes, projects, workshops and performance opportunities. During the course students engage in a range of performance projects, working on Shakespeare, contemporary plays and musicals as well as devising original work. The first half of each term is devoted to skills classes whilst in the second half of each term these skills are applied to performance projects.
In the second year, skills are further explored in collaboration classes which include peer integration and team teaching to enhance your creativity and help you to make connections between subjects.
Additionally, there is time given to tailored ‘surgeries’ to focus on detail and help develop independence and confidence in each individual’s practice.
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 Directing pathway will develop professional-level directing technique through classes and seminars, as well as opportunities to work as an assistant director and to direct their own work.
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, Producing and Performance students.
Our MA Creative Practice graduates leave with an established network of industry contacts and prepared for high-impact careers as Directors, Creative Leaders, Theatre Makers, Artistic Directors, Commercial and Independent Producers, 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).
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:
Emily Aboud Award-winning director, Tender and Lady Dealer (Bush Theatre)
Sean Holmes Associate Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe; former Artistic Director of the Lyric Hammersmith
Denzel Westley-Sanderson Winner of the RTST Sir Peter Hall Directing Award
Ned Bennett The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Birmingham Rep)
Ola Ince Director of Tina: The Tina Turner Musical (International Associate Director, London/Hamburg/Broadway/Utrecht) and Appropriate (Donmar)
Lucy Morrison Director of Hope Has A Happy Meal and This Is Not Who I Am (Royal Court)
This Musical Direction course has a 1-year MA or 2-year MFA option, offering students a more in-depth training experience. The course is an intensive for skilled musicians with ambitions to work in music leadership roles within theatre and beyond.
We have a strong reputation in the industry for rigour and quality, and previous students on the course can be found working on a diverse range of musical theatre productions across the West End, UK and internationally. The course is suited to experienced pianists, accompanists and conductors who have worked with singers, actors and instrumentalists, or would like to develop their skills in this area.
Mountview has developed an internationally renowned reputation for its commitment to musical theatre. Our state-of-the-art facilities in South London and the network of industry professionals who contribute to the teaching provide the ideal springboard for a career in music direction.
COURSE CONTENT AND DELIVERY
Teaching and contact time vary at different times of the year and depending on assignments. Each student has a bespoke timetable typically receiving between 15 and 25 hours each week. These comprise of core components and cross-course classes combined with allocated roles on projects and productions.
Across the year students will attend classes and seminars with leading practitioners and industry specialists; receive individual tutorials; assist professional musical directors on in-house and public productions; and lead musically on selected projects.
Assessment is ongoing and based on work throughout the course, culminating in summative assessment points in the second and third terms.
