We want you to be able to create meaningful drama and theatre for, with and by different communities.
Recognising that theatre can be more than entertainment, you focus on the potential of drama to educate and bring about social change. You develop core skills as a theatre practitioner, while gaining practical experience of working with people from diverse backgrounds and understanding the social issues that affect them. You leave as a confident and innovative facilitator and director with the knowledge and skills to work across the spectrum of applied theatre and community drama.
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.
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 Producing pathway develop a robust and practical understanding of producing, across both the commercial and not-for-profit sectors. You will expand your understanding and critical awareness of current practices through extensive engagement with leading industry practitioners and academics.
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, Directing and Performance students.
Our MA Creative Practice graduates leave with an established network of industry contacts and prepared for high-impact careers as Commercial and Independent Producers, Creative Leaders, Theatre Makers, Artistic Directors, 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).
Recent guest tutors on the Producing pathway have included Alison King (Turtle Key Arts), Daniel Cooper (The Yard), Joseph Smith (Stage One), Will Bridgeland (Candoco Dance Company), Katie Town (Theatre Royal Wakefield), Jo Crowley (Aakash Odedra Company), India Crawford (Arts Council), Belinda Clark (Brixton House), Ed McGovern (Crossroads Live), Davy Berryman (The Lost Estate) and David Ralf (Theatre Deli).
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:
Designed for professional performers from all genres of dance looking to transition in their careers, the programme envisions the dance producer as a driving force to develop and shape the performing arts industry.
Learning from industry professionals, small and select cohorts will be equipped to take advantage of commercial and artistic opportunities and tackle complex challenges. Placements within dance and theatre organisations will develop their knowledge and skills in creating, producing, engaging audiences, marketing, business, finance and management. A strong emphasis on work-based learning through placements and projects will enable students to put their knowledge and skills into practice while building networks in the industry.
The programme was developed in collaboration with 25 industry partners, who represent the best of the artistic vibrancy of dance today, which has resulted in an ever growing pool of prospective placement providers from all areas of the field. This includes dance companies, independent dance artists, producers, and choreographers who work in a range of genres including ballet, contemporary dance, hip hop, music theatre, film and television. Based in artsdepot, students have access to two professional theatre spaces in which they can produce and stage work.
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.
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.
