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.

Our arts management training equips students with the skills and experience needed for a career in the creative sector. This unique programme develops resilient, work-ready and sought-after graduates that can succeed in a fast-paced and ever-changing industry.

Why study arts management at RWCMD?
- Industry facing: our course reflects current practice as it is delivered by a team of professionals who all still work in the industry, as well as guest specialists who visit throughout the year.

- Employability: we are very proud to have maintained a 100% employment record since 2013, with students continuing to secure related jobs within three months of graduating.

- Focus on industry experience: you’ll have opportunities to gain that all-important work experience as it is a key course focus. We have a comprehensive work placement programme and arrange placements for all arts management students, both in our multi-venue arts centre + within one of our 30+ external partner organisations.

- Conservatoire-based training: you’ll learn within a music and drama conservatoire and world-class arts centre which provides unique opportunities for arts management students to collaborate on projects across the college and work with visiting artists/companies.

- Choice of three specialist pathways: choose from creative producing, orchestral management or general arts management as your area of specialism, depending on your interest and career aspirations.

Gain practical experience in 11 production roles with our specialist training that opens up a diverse range of career paths in the entertainment industry.

This specialist programme offers you hands-on training in stage management, stagecraft, technical theatre, event production and event management.

It provides opportunities for you to gain practical experience in a variety of production roles within a working environment that closely reflects that of the professional theatre and its related industries.

You’ll start by learning all the core skills needed to work on productions. Training in stage management – which revolves around organising and coordinating a live performance – includes a series of practical sessions. These will deepen your knowledge and understanding of the roles of assistant stage manager (ASM) and deputy stage manager (DSM) and include projects in prop making and sourcing.

Your stagecraft sessions will explore the skills you need to mark out rehearsal rooms and stages, construct and fit-up basic scenery, and operate stage machinery such as hemp and counterweight flying systems. You’ll also gain technical knowledge of lighting, sound, video and electrical systems. Health and safety training is embedded throughout the course as well.

But it’s using your skills in a range of real-world experiences that forms the foundation of your training. Throughout your course, you’ll take part in 11 production placements – predominantly with the Richard Burton Company, our in-house theatre company – however, three of those could be within professional UK theatre production companies.

Our BA (Hons) Applied Theatre aims to inspire the next generation of passionate and skilled theatre-makers. Our focus is on developing the skills and understanding needed to create compelling new performances and theatre projects with purpose. We are concerned not only with how we make theatre, but also why.

Prepare yourself for a successful career in Stage Management by studying at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.

Their BA (Hons) Stage Management degree provides in-depth, practical training; they aim to produce confident graduates who are ready for a successful career in the industry as soon as they leave. 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