As a Stage Management and Technical Theatre student, you will learn hands-on skills and techniques that will prepare you for a career in theatre production; whether you are aspiring to become a multi-skilled theatre maker, or build specialist abilities such as rigging, prop sourcing, technical drawing or show-calling. Building on core knowledge of stage management, stage technologies, lighting, and sound, the flexible course structure then enables you to tailor your learning experiences to suit your ambitions.
- Intensive training in stage management and theatre technology
- Career preparation for backstage work in theatre, with extensive transferable skills for the live events industry
- Collaborate with teams of designers, makers, performers, technicians, engineers and artists
- Discover the theories, processes and practices that underpin contemporary performance and production arts
This course has been devised in response to industry and student-led demand for practical training in make-up and hairdressing techniques for theatre, film, TV, fashion, festival, carnival and entertainment arenas.
Key features
- All tutors are industry specialists
- Campus facilities include a working theatre and photographic studios
- Students gain work experience on high profile films, TV series and West End shows
- Graduates are now working on major films, TV series, adverts, West End shows and magazine shoots
An exciting course combining strong technical training, creative opportunities and industry experience. The course programme involves the study and practice of both traditional and innovative areas of musical performance. It includes in-depth vocal training, a wide range of acting techniques and technical dance training in jazz, tap, ballet, contemporary, pas de deux and commercial.
Key features
- Taught by professional performers, directors and choreographers
- 11 rehearsal studios, five with sprung dance floors and mirrors
- Professional-standard theatre with industry-level equipment, recently over-hauled with new lighting and sound systems
- Collaboration with make-up, costume and technical theatre students
- Alumni have been working in West End and UK touring shows, TV and film, and for many of the leading cruise ship entertainment companies
Recent alumni include Helen Woolf, who has been starring as Glinda on the Wicked UK tour having previously played the role in London’s West End; Alfie Parker, who has been performing in Kinky Boots having previously performed in School of Rock in London’s West End covering the lead role; and Blake Patrick Anderson who was in Starlight Express.
A dynamic and exciting course combining strong technical training, creative opportunities and industry experience. You will have the opportunity to train in acting and explore your own artistic practice.
The BA in Acting allows you to develop acting techniques through a series of different approaches to ensure that you are most employable and well placed to critique and contribute to the cultural landscape. The training focuses on different aspects of acting; the actor performer, the actor-director, the actor-activist, the actor-producer, the actor on film.
There are opportunities to collaborate with our theatre design, make up, props, technical and music students. In the second and third-year students will have the opportunity to specialise in writing, directing, producing, film, transmedia or comedy and design their own projects.
You will benefit from a variety of visiting practitioners and specialised workshops throughout the three years. This academic year we have had over 15 different practitioners run projects and workshops, including an audition workshop with David Gyasi.
The Year will cover the core acting principles and the craft of the actor, from a range of different practitioners and directors perspectives, both through theatre and screen practice. Students will cover, voice, movement, characterisation, text work, improvisation and impulse, presence, rehearsal process through to performance and audition technique, industry preparation.
We believe in an integrated and holistic approach to actor training, and that an actor never really concludes their learning, its is simply a continuous cycle of research, doing and reflection from workshop to workshop, job to job and year to year... So the course is content fluid and reflects a year cycle of doing, reflecting and learning suitable for all backgrounds and experiences.
To enable this we have articulated six key core elements of the actors craft or we like to refer to as the six DNA strands that make up the actor. These strands will be the focal point of the training and are also the same strands we work on in 'The Actor's Gym' with our professional actor network.
This is a unique and industry led London-based programme delivered by leading professional practitioners. The training also includes European and International residences to further enhance skills and industry contacts.
The aim of the MFA is to produce highly skilled, versatile and independently thinking professional actors who can confidently shape a sustainable career in the diverse and continually evolving Performing Arts industries including stage, screen and audio. It includes modules in Independent Production in recognition that today’s actor must create work as well as be in it.
The course is practical, in-depth and industry informed in its design and delivery. You will be taught throughout the two years by current professional practitioners and working directors in all the specialist training areas of voice, movement and acting for stage, screen and audio; providing you with advanced actor training, alongside rigorous academic study and performance research. Regular contact is also maintained with leading producers, directors, casting directors and agents to ensure that you emerge confident, capable and industry ready.
The course includes two international residencies. Year 1 will include a one-week, intensive training workshop with a European partner organisation. Year 2 will include a substantial training residency which last year took place in the USA, at a leading performing arts conservatory. Both these residencies will extend your understanding of specialist areas and explore creative possibilities across cultural landscapes. Please note that the travel and accommodation for these residencies will be covered at your own expense. We will give you an estimation of the costs as soon as possible at the start of the course but please make sure you budget for this.
Our full-time courses are vocational and practical. We will guide you through Spotlight and Equity membership and provide an industry career launch to present you to professional agents and casting directors. You will leave the MFA with a professionally shot filmed scenes a voice clips. You will be given the opportunity to showcase your talent in events for the public, agents and casting directors, as well as emerging with your own fully realised production that is ready for touring, viewing or listening.
The MFA is validated and awarded by the University of West London which prides itself as the Career University. Drama Studio London is also accredited by the Council for Dance, Drama and Musical Theatre (CDMT), a governing body which accredits excellent professional training in the leading drama schools. It is an integral member of the Federation of Drama Schools (FDS), an organisation dedicated to good practice in conservatoire training.
This course will give you the physical, critical and authorship skills to create performances that are relevant to our time. You will become a versatile performer who can make their own work and own their own stage, taking inspiration from live art, cabaret, circus skills, drag, spoken word, burlesque, stand-comedy, stage magic, immersive performance and festivals.
This course focuses on practical performance skills like magic, clowning, burlesque and wrestling, taught by cutting-edge practitioners. It is not a traditional Acting course; you will not learn classical texts; instead, you will create your own new, performances which engage with the audience and provoke thought.
You will benefit from the opportunity to do industry placements, network with professional practitioners and learn a wide range of practical skills to serve you in your practice (such as event management and collaboration). You will be taught at our Sidcup campus and also at the Tramshed in their new fully equipped premises, immersing you in the industry in the heart of inner London.
You will study with award-winning Marisa Carnesky – a renowned live artist and show-woman who has been helping both emerging and established artists evolve ideas, develop their practices and make new work for over 20 years. She also heads up the creative production, performance and theatre company Carnesky Productions (founded in 2004).
Location: Sidcup
Set, lighting, sound, props, costume. These are a few of the considerations required to put together a production. The Production Arts Extended Diploma course programme focuses on developing the broad range of skills necessary for progression to work or further study at degree level in technical theatre. The qualification has been designed to meet the needs of the creative and cultural industries.
This course looks at each of these and more develop skills that are transferable from an arena sized concert or a theatrical production all the way to small scale touring theatre. Employment has grown alongside technology in this area and so there are job and higher education opportunities for students who complete this course of study.
The emphasis is on practical skills underpinned by theoretical understanding and industry standard health and safety practices. Much of the work will be in support of the wide range of performances in theatre, dance and music that take place each year as well as having opportunity to speak to industry professionals, take part in production workshops and visit local and regional theatres. Each project you complete is designed to be realistic to what you would expect in industry.
In addition to your main programme, you will also engage in activities to develop your English, maths and employability skills.
Establishing the foundations for connected, imaginative artists, who are employable, knowledgeable and ready to take the next step in their training journey.
Fourth Monkey’s CertHE Acting & Theatre Making is a one-year professional, vocational actor training course aimed primarily (but not exclusively) at post-A Level or equivalent students who are embarking on the very first steps in their drama school training journey.
The CertHE Acting & Theatre Making course aims to establish the foundations for fearless, connected and imaginative artists who are employable, knowledgeable and ready as both actors and theatre makers to take the next steps in professional vocational training.
The CertHE Acting & Theatre Making course offers innovative and inclusive training to empower and develop those embarking on their creative journey through experiential acting technique, movement, voice and collaborative theatre making.
The CertHE Acting & Theatre Making is validated by Falmouth University. This means that our students are able to access Student Finance to pay the fees, making Fourth Monkey training accessible and affordable to those who wish to explore life at a drama school, in advance of further vocational training at a higher level.
Training on the CertHE encourages connections between training disciplines, practices and activities within the field of performance and creation. There is no academic written work, instead students “learn by doing” in a range of professional vocational classes, workshops, performance projects and presentations using Fourth Monkey’s unique thematic training structure of ACT, MAKE, MOVE, COLLABORATE.
Below is an outline of the key features of the CertHE Acting & Theatre Making course:
• Foundation-level training for post-A Level or equivalent performers and theatre makers
• “Learn through doing” – professional vocational classes, workshops, performance projects and presentations, rather than academic written work
• Accredited by Fourth Monkey’s degree awarding partner, Falmouth University
• Access to Student Finance to pay course fees
“I loved it, found myself as an artist and person, … I’ve changed so much and I can’t stress how important that was for me.” – Simrita Khela, Fourth Monkey Alumnus 2020.
