This course is vocational and practice-based, using our state-of-the-art workshops, studios and theatres, and making use of the extensive opportunities to work on our many public productions and showcases.
Choosing from one or two areas of technical theatre or stage management, you will build on your skills and experience from your foundation degree to gain specialist knowledge and replicate working at high-level industry standards. Alongside our experienced teaching faculty, you will be introduced to practitioners from across the industry who provide additional insights into the variety of careers open to you and the skills and experience your future employers will be looking for.
You will graduate from the course ready to take on a range of roles across theatre, film, television, radio and live events.
You will also benefit from a professional development programme, as well as the RADA Buddy mentoring scheme, which supports your transition from student to professional with graduate ‘buddies’ providing professional advice, feedback and networking opportunities.
Students who successfully complete the FdA in Technical Theatre and Stage Management with a Merit or above at RADA will now automatically be considered for the BA (Hons) progression year. We also welcome applicants with a foundation degree or equivalent from elsewhere to apply for this course.
Places are available in a number of subject areas:
- Costume supervision
- Lighting (design and/or production lighting)
- Production management
- Sound (design and/or production sound)
- Property making
- Scenic art
- Scenic construction
- Stage management
- Technical management
- Video (design and/or production video)
Combinations of subjects may also be considered, for example:
- Property making and stage management
- Technical and production management
- Scenic construction and technical management
- Scenic art and property making
Our students learn by doing. Your training will be vocational and practical, focusing on preparing you for work in the industry. Career guidance and professional development sessions are given throughout the course. There are no academic essays or dissertations, our work is practical and collaborative. You will be asked to write a self assessment every six weeks and written work ranges from risk assessments to technical schematics as part of the training.
After a broad-based first year of training, your second year allows you the opportunity to specialise in the vocational area that interests you, choosing from stage management, lighting, scenic construction, technical management, sound, property making and supervision, production management, video, scenic art or costume.
From the outset, you will work on RADA public productions – we stage around 15 shows a year – as crew and/or operator. These productions are directed by professionals and usually involve professional designers. In your second year you will work in more senior roles (of which there are around eighty to choose from). Theses include: stage manager, deputy/ assistant stage manager, wardrobe supervisor, production electrician, lighting programmer, production sound engineer, production video engineer, scenery builder or project manager, production manager, technical manager, scenic artist, broadcast/ camera supervisor, props supervisor.
You will also undertake a professional placement in your second year for up to six weeks with a theatre company, organisation or practitioner. Recent student placements have taken place on shows including Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and Secret Cinema, and at venues such as the National Theatre, Old Vic, Young Vic, Glyndebourne Opera, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, Royal Court and English National Opera .
Rich and diverse in its scope and facilities, the course combines in-depth technical instruction with insight into the organisational, management and collaborative skills that form the core of successful work in theatre and other areas of the entertainment industry, like film, radio, television, conferences, events and other commercial ventures.
We encourage personal development, considered reflective practice and strong individual growth because these are the skills that will support you through a complex, high-pressured and rewarding career.
RADA also regularly hosts guest speakers, comprising leading figures from a wide range of industries and walks of life – from politics and arts, to photography, neuroscience and religion.
Students benefit from a the RADA Buddy mentoring scheme, which supports your transition from student to professional with graduate ‘buddies’ providing professional advice, feedback and networking opportunities.
Although the Foundation degree is intended as a complete vocational training in itself, students who successfully complete the FdA and acheive at least a Merit will now automatically be considered for the BA (Hons) progression year - enabling students to deepen their specialist knowledge further in one or two areas of technical theatre or stage management.
Reasons to study Audio Production:
• A comprehensive programme covering audio and music production, and sound design for live music, theatre, film,TV, radio, games and VR/AR.
• Develop technical skills and creative awareness, and explore your interests through taught classes and a wide range of creative projects.
• Specialise in audio engineering, recorded and live music production or sound design for theatre, film, TV, video games and VR/AR.
• In your final year, study for a technical BSc or a creative BA qualification.
• Benefit from our extensive network of industry experts who will work with you on projects as you learn specialist skills.
• Build your knowledge through industry placements.
• Deliver your own personal or collaborative projects inside and outside the College.
• Share sessions with students from other programmes, to learn about the creative, media and performance industries.
• Develop your professional practice and identity in order to build a successful career.
Career opportunities:
Graduates will enter the industry equipped to work as music and audio producers, live and studio mixing engineers, sound designers, sound artists and studio and production managers.
Location: Sidcup
Reasons to study Creative Lighting Control
• Learn lighting and video programming and design, show control and interactive technologies, networked systems and stage electrics, projection systems and digital visual content deployment, 3D visualisation, computer-aided design and technical management.
• Benefit from our extensive network of industry experts who will work with you on projects as you learn specialist skills.
• Build your professional knowledge through industry placements.
• Gain an insight into techniques used across live music, theatre, television, film, live and corporate events and architectural installations.
• Deliver your own live projects inside and outside the College.
• Study a unique course with an outstanding track record of graduate success in the live events industries.
• Share classes and projects with students from other programmes to learn about the events industries, arts and performance, and how to use experimentation, enquiry and creative research in your work, and prepare to build a successful career.
Career opportunities
Our graduates go into the industry equipped to deliver creative solutions to technical problems. They go on to be lighting and video programmers, designers, creative technologists and technical managers, working in theatre, live music, live events, film, television, corporate and architecture settings.
You may also be interested in:
Lighting Design, BA (Hons)
Lighting Design For Architecture, BA (Hons)
“Having that degree behind me opens so many doors that I wouldn’t have had before.” Sam Lisher, Creative Lighting Control, 2017 Graduate
Location: Sidcup
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.
The BA Production Technology and Management programme is a very practical course that will see you take on industry-standard roles from the very start. With a timetable that is also reflective of industry practice, you will build the stamina and resilience to withstand a challenging yet rewarding career.
Production consists of both the BA Production Technology and Management and the BA Production Arts and Design programmes. Production students will work very closely with each other in the classroom and on RCS productions.
This is the only conservatoire-based technical theatre degree in Scotland. Through the programme we aim to produce production technicians, stage managers and lighting designers who can turn their hands to any related role, making them employable in a range of contexts, whilst also being specialists in career pathways, i.e. stage management, stage technology, sound design, sound engineering, lighting technology and lighting design.
We’ll help you to create your own pathway through the programme, focusing on your areas of interest. You will learn to work creatively, as an individual artist, as part of a production team and in collaboration with other students of all disciplines.
RCS is a major public performance venue with world-class facilities. The combination of professional venues, extensive workshops, construction spaces, design studios, and the latest stage and workshop technologies provide a fantastic learning environment.
We work closely with industry to ensure our curriculum is current, competitive, and of the highest professional standard, so you will gain all of the skills and knowledge needed for your future career. We have very close relationships with key Scottish national companies, such as Scottish Opera, the National Theatre of Scotland and Scottish Ballet as well as companies across Scotland, such as the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow, Pitlochry Festival Theatre, the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh, Blue Parrot Production and Events in Edinburgh and Warehouse Sound in Glasgow.
Further afield we have well-established relationships with national and international organisations such as the Association of British Theatre Technician (ABTT), the Association of Stage Pyrotechnicians (ASP) the Production Lighting and Sound Association (PLASA), United States Institute for Theatre Technology, Inc. (USITT), Cirque du Soleil, TAIT, Just FX and the National Theatre in London.
Our graduates will aspire to become the creative leaders and innovators of the future and will be encouraged to push accepted boundaries and create new standards of practice in the industry at large.
This innovative fast track, two year degree combines the best of University education with the best of Drama School training in order to produce the future generation of theatre technicians who are not only technically competent but alive to the changing creative demands of this fast moving industry.
- Drama St Mary’s offers Pre-UCAS interviews and auditions that give you feedback before you apply through UCAS.
- A range of scholarships are available for undergraduate students.
- Taught by theatre professionals and academics.
- Employment-focused course.
Why study Technical Theatre?
This programme's two year structure is unique within St Mary’s University.
The United Kingdom has an International reputation for its innovative work in the theatre and associated Creative Industries.
Across the globe technicians and designers trained in the UK are pioneering new ways to reimagine space, tell stories and solve the logistical problems of managing live performance.
A training in technical theatre will equip you with both the design skills and the technical knowhow to work across a broad range of skills within this exciting and fast moving industry.
