Contemporary and wide-ranging vocational postgraduate training for talented emerging directors.
In your first term, you will observe and participate in core LAMDA training alongside postgraduate acting students, working across the disciplines of acting, voice, movement and singing in order to develop an understanding of the actor’s process.
You will participate in seminars in text analysis and interpretation, and the aesthetics and processes particular to screen, as well as directing your fellow students in short scene studies.
In your second and third terms, you will assist professional directors on projects, onsite or digital productions, an original short film and an actors’ workshop at LAMDA. And during the spring holiday, you will collaborate with LAMDA actors to devise an original piece of theatre – an opportunity to put into practice what you have learned and develop your dramaturgical skills.
Your year will finish with you directing and realising a play of your choice in one of our performance spaces including invited industry. Over the past two years, these guests have included Natalie Abrahami, Ned Bennett, Giles Croft, Mike Longhurst, Roxanna Silbert and Lyndsey Turner.
An intensive, practical course for prospective theatre directors.
Mountview’s Theatre Directing students have gone on to work for the UK’s leading theatre companies, in the West End and on Broadway. Graduates have a reputation for clarity, imaginative engagement and leadership and include Michael Longhurst – Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse, Maria Aberg (Dr Faustus RSC, Little Shop of Horrors Regent’s Park), Joe Murphy (Woyzeck Old Vic) and Iqbal Khan (Antony and Cleopatra RSC).
Teaching is led by Peter James CBE, co-founder of Liverpool Everyman, former Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres, Lyric Hammersmith and Principal Emeritus of LAMDA. Peter is supported by resident and freelance staff and leading professional theatre practitioners from various disciplines.
The core principle is to develop the unique voice of each student director. The course takes place five days per week over 41 weeks split into three terms. It blends lectures, seminars and workshops with practical work as a director – both assisting professional directors and leading on theatre projects. What makes Mountview’s course stand out is that in the third term you will direct your own public showcase production working with a producer, designer and cast.
All modules are compulsory. There is continuous assessment and you will have regular tutorials with the course leader supporting module elements and working towards your self-developed MA public directing project. This project is backed up with a written dissertation or a practical equivalent.
This programme is for those who are interested to make and perform theatre by, with and for young people. As one of the UK's leading drama schools, Rose Bruford College offers a unique opportunity to study and train in this increasingly popular and dynamic area of theatre practice.
Led by a team of specialist practitioners and academics you will be working with some of the leading figures in the UK and European sector. Students on the programme have had the opportunity to visit international festivals (including ASSITEJ Congress Copenhagen, Imaginate Festival Edinburgh, and Takeoff), work with leading companies and theatres (including Catherine Wheels, NIE, Oily Cart, Tall Stories, Unicorn Theatre, Action Transport Theatre, Polka Theatre, Half Moon Theatre, and Travelling Light), and with world class practitioners (including Tony Graham, Mark Storor, Alex Byrne, and David Wood). Working alongside our TYA creative partners, you will explore a range of theatrical techniques and theories that will enrich your ability to create theatre for audiences of all ages. The course includes work placements with leading organisations.
Programme at a glance:
• From the start of your studies you will work with young audiences in Schools and Colleges across the South East Region.
• Opportunities to publish research through the College's TYA research centre.
• You will work with and study the practice of leading TYA figures from the UK and internationally
• Membership through the College of TYA-UK, the UK arm of ASSITEJ – the international association of theatre for children and young audiences.
Location: Sidcup
Why choose this course?
• Enhance your career prospects
• Become a more effective supporter of learning and share good practices in work-based learning
• Pursue a direct route to Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy if you are either employed by Rose Bruford College, The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts or a staff member at an HEA affiliated institution.*
• Enhance your work through critical reflection and participation in learning communities
1 year (part-time) - 6 online study days
Term Start - October
Course Description
This part time postgraduate programme is designed for full and part-time teachers and those who support learning in Higher Education in the performing arts disciplines of theatre, drama, dance, music, lighting, scenography and the digital arts. The programme is work based. Students utilise their own specific teaching practice to reflect upon learning and teaching issues in Higher Education so it is essential in order to undertake the course that you are actually teaching or supporting students at this level.
Six online study days are scheduled throughout the year commencing with induction in October. The study days will be augmented by regular online interaction and self-directed study within your own work situations. Work- based teaching and research opportunities may be used as evidence for demonstrating the fulfilment of the programme learning outcomes.
To view some of the online resources used within this programme please refer to our Reflecting on Learning and Teaching in the Performing Arts website: http://rltperformingarts.org/
*Pursue a direct route to Fellowship of the HEA. If you are employed by Rose Bruford College, The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts or a staff member at an HEA affiliated institution there will be no joining fee. If you are employed by a non-affiliated institution you are still eligible to become a Fellow, however you will be required to pay a joining fee.
Reasons to study Stage and Events Management
• Experience a variety of roles on a range of productions and events both in College and in London venues.
• Develop relationships with, and an understanding of, other disciplines; including lighting, sound, set construction, costume and prop-making, marketing, outreach, venue and site management, administration and finance.
• Sharpen your creativity and management skills whilst collaborating with students from other programmes to deliver diverse performances and events.
• Extend your learning through research, secondments, work placements in the industry or a period of study abroad.
• Share classes and projects with students from other programmes to learn about the cultural, performance, arts and events industries and how to use experimentation, enquiry and creative research in your work as you prepare to build a successful career.
Career opportunities
Adaptable and creative practitioners, graduates from the Stage Management Programme, from which this programme has been developed, have gone on to work in a wide range of fields: theatre, dance, opera, television, festivals and corporate events. They have also moved into sound and video for live performance alongside arts and venue management roles.
“It prepares you very much for the industry and the way they’ve built it as a technical course, your level of training is like no other.” Anthony Norris-Watson
Deputy Production Manager, The Old Vic Theatre
Location: Sidcup
MA/MFA Classical and Contemporary Text is for actors and directors who find themselves looking beyond traditional and contemporary artistic approaches as they seek to broaden and deepen their individual practice.
Individuality is at the core of this postgraduate programme. We work with artists who use their social, moral, and ethical values to animate their practice. This is a course where you will have agency over your own work, and be responsible for driving your learning and creativity forward.
It is this agency which makes the programme different from undergraduate study. With support from the staff team, you will write your own learning outcomes, determining your trajectory and ultimately, we hope, you will flourish as both a learner and a creative practitioner.
It’s an intense programme where actors and directors work together, creating a dynamic community rooted in creative collaboration. Highlights include developing new text in partnership with Playwrights’ Studio Scotland, performing or directing contemporary performance working in proto-professional ensembles and completing a month’s residency at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, London.
At the end of this residency, after undertaking classes with the educational team at the Globe, you will perform or direct sharings on the mainstage of Shakespeare’s Globe, a unique and iconic playing space.
If this narrative excites or inspires you, please get in touch with us to discuss how you can begin your artistic journey with us.
- For students wishing to specialise in stage management for the theatre, live events and film & television production.
- A 24-month programme of taught modules followed by internal and external placement opportunities to suit the individual's career progression. Where approved, external placements may be paid or unpaid.
- Tuition and supervision from a team of established industry practitioners.
- Masterclasses and seminars from leading industry experts.
- Training in the full range of skills required to be a professional stage manager or event manager or film and television professional.
- Core skills module covering job roles, budgets, health and safety, essential technical skills, scheduling and CAD.
- Management in Context module covering planning, problem-solving, management theory, logistics, team working and career planning.
- Up to four six-week placements on productions/events, up to two of these with professional companies.
- The final component involves either writing a dissertation or creating a Professional Practice Portfolio, with support and mentoring from College tutors.
