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.

Mountview produces around 26 plays and musicals in theatres across London, the UK and internationally each year, giving Stage Management students a vast array of learning experiences.

We offer three training levels: a two-year Foundation Degree (FdA) which provides a fast-track training and a three-year BA (Hons) with greater experience. For students with previous experience who are looking to formalise their skills and develop industry contacts we also offers a one-year Diploma specialising in stage management.

Our vocational, hands-on course has seen graduates go on to work with many diverse companies including National Theatre,
London Olympics/Paralympics and Matilda The Musical.

Our practical training runs with a minimum of 30 hours per week, 36 weeks per year. It begins with workshops covering core skills in all areas of production arts with training from experienced industry professionals. Students then move quickly on to practical show roles in stage management.

Stage Management training covers:

Prompt book and show calling
Creative research including period-specific work
Working with pyrotechnics and blank firing weapons
Co-ordination and project management
Cueing to music
Prop making and sourcing
Stage managing musicals, classics and new writing
Working at some of London’s leading theatres

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.