Prepare yourself for a successful career in Stage Management by studying at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Our BA (Hons) Stage Management degree provides in-depth, practical training; we aim to produce confident graduates who are ready for a successful career in the industry as soon as they leave us....
Prepare yourself for a successful career in Stage Management by studying at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.
Our BA (Hons) Stage Management degree provides in-depth, practical training; we aim to produce confident graduates who are ready for a successful career in the industry as soon as they leave us. You’ll gain authentic industry experience while developing the vital skills needed in each role of a stage management team.
As a participant on this programme you will join a vibrant and diverse community sharing in a journey of professional enquiry designed to enhance your practice as an arts educator.
This part-time 180-credit programme provides a unique opportunity for arts educators to upgrade their teaching qualifications and obtain a Masters qualification that has been designed to develop teaching skills for the arts. It is delivered on a part-time basis through a blended learning model, which includes a mix of face-to-face sessions, online sessions, one-to-one tutorials and independent study (distance students can study the programme fully online, accessing the face-to-face sessions through a video conferencing platform).
The programme is designed to allow arts education professionals to integrate their studies within their professional teaching contexts. The process of professional enquiry that underpins all modules requires students to engage in a sustained critical analysis of their teaching and arts practice in order to identify and address their own developmental priorities at each stage. The programme culminates in a self-designed, self-generated, major-scale project that is intended to help students make a significant contribution to their learners and their professional sector. As such, we are looking for individuals who are ready to engage their creativity in developing and evolving innovative approaches to their practice as arts educators.
The programme is designed to appeal to individuals who have a role as an arts educator within a formal education context such as a:
- GTCS registered primary teacher*
- GTCS registered secondary teacher*
- Further Education lecturer/tutor**
- Higher Education lecturer/tutor**
- Visiting Guest Tutor in a school
- Instrumental Music Instructor
- Teacher in an International School
- Lecturer/tutor in an International Higher Education context**
- Early Years educator
Or within a UK or International informal context, such as a:
- Community Arts Tutor
- Participatory Arts Tutor
- Private Tutor
- Dance Tutor/Teacher
- Tutor in a pre-HE organisation
- Freelance Teaching Artist
For all participants, the programme can be used to develop knowledge and skills as an arts educator and to build an evidence-base to demonstrate commitment to their professional learning in designing and delivering learning activities
On the Writing for Performance course, you can:
- Develop skills for writing for performance practices
- Create new performance work and explore innovative forms of writing for solo performance, verbatim theatre and devised theatre
- Work with award-winning playwrights, arts practitioners and directors
- Position yourself as a writer within the performance process
- Explore a broad curriculum that is centred around socially engaged performance practices and the dramaturgical skills of writing
- Develop your writing skills in different community contexts in the UK and abroad
- Study alongside students on the BA DATE and BA Performance Arts programmes, offering a vibrant meshing of writing and live performance art at undergraduate level at Central.
You will work with a variety of high profile writers, arts practitioners and directors, encountering a diverse range of innovative performance practices that use writing for performance in different ways.
On the Drama, Applied Theatre and Education (DATE) course, you can:
Perform in, direct and devise theatre, explore performance that takes place outside traditional theatre environments. Make theatre to change lives and inspire change in communities . Build industry contacts worldwide through placements and outreach projects. Develop skills in areas such as facilitating, devising, directing, performing, playwriting and filmmaking.
Applied Theatre at Central is highly regarded internationally and the Drama, Applied Theatre and Education (DATE) is a world leading course that will train you as a highly adaptable theatre maker. You will focus on performance making in diverse settings such as community centres, parks, prisons, pupil referral units, refugee camps, hospitals, playgrounds, schools and nursing homes, in the UK and abroad. Such innovative work aims to bring about change in communities and participants from all walks of life.
We believe that excellent professional applied drama theatre makers are skilled practically, intellectually and come from a diverse set of backgrounds themselves. We work with you to help you meet the challenge of developing your practice and intellectual abilities. You will have the opportunity to develop skills in areas such as facilitating, devising, directing, performing, playwriting and filmmaking.
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.
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.
This course combines intensive movement-based studio practice, collaborative facilitations, seminars, and a shared research unit with other MA students which creates a learning environment that encourages personal exploration, collaboration and critical reflection.
The Sesame approach is underpinned by Jungian psychology and draws together Laban movement, play theory, Billy Lindkvist’s work with movement with touch and sound, and a mythopoetic approach to the psyche.
There is also the opportunity for immersive practice in the key subject areas of Laban movement, myth, movement with touch and sound, and drama. This is allied with studies in developmental and analytical psychology, specifically the work of Jung.
The group process is central to the student experience and supported by a weekly session across the first three terms that explores interpersonal dynamics between members and draws from group analytic theory.
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 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.
This course provides an opportunity to explore applied theatre via one of two specialist pathways: Drama in the Community and Drama Education or Drama and the Criminal Justice System. Each pathway is designed to support current practice at work, or a particular field of interest in applied theatre and drama.
Students will develop their own practice and scholarship, learn key practices in applied theatre, engage with new ideas in the field, undertake project-based study examining specific professional work with a range of client groups, or specialise in working with people whose lives have been affected by the criminal justice system.
The course receives substantial support from The Leverhulme Trust. This unique funding of over £138,000 a year for the next three years (from 2019) is specifically to enable both MA and BA applied theatre students to undertake projects and placements in the UK and abroad.
