BA (Hons) Performing Arts consists of three pathways: Musical Theatre, Acting and Hip-Hop Artistry; each providing in-depth training shaped by current industry trends.

Technique, work ethic, confidence, self-awareness and imagination are key tools for any performer looking to build a sustainable and fulfilling career in the arts.

During the first two years of your training, you will develop and embed technique, explore new ideas and ways of working, discover yourself as a creative artist, and learn how to promote yourself and your work in a competitive market.

In the third year the training becomes industry focused with professional preparation, public shows, a filmed show reel, self-taping tuition as well as an independent project of your choosing.

Uniquely during your final year, you also select from a range of options, all created to meet the demands of the industry. This allows you to drill down into a specific area of performance and enhance your skill set further.

Our pathways encourage independence, entrepreneurialism and innovation because these qualities will be required of any performer entering the contemporary performing arts industry. We don’t want you just to get work, we want you to make work.

All learning is underpinned by personal development classes, enabling you to find strategies in time management, organisational skills and control of performance related anxiety. These are life skills that you can apply far beyond your three years with us, and within a variety of contexts.

This course encourages independence, entrepreneurialism and innovation because these qualities will be required of any performer entering the contemporary performing arts industry. We don’t want you just to get work, we want you to make work.

All learning is underpinned by regular mental and physical resilience classes; another key element of your training.

You will need to be resilient on entering this notoriously hard profession. You should also be equipped with life skills, which you can apply within a variety of contexts far beyond your three years of training.

The Production Arts programme at Guildhall School equips you with the skills you need to enter the theatre and related industries. We strongly believe that your training should be tailored to your individual career aims. For this reason, you will select one of four pathways, each with a different emphasis:

-Stage Management
-Costume
-Theatre Technology (Sound, Lighting, Video, Automation and Stage Technology)
-Design Realisation (Scenic Art, Scenic Construction and Prop Making)

These pathways are each supported by a first year of broad-based study covering the theory and practice of theatre production. As well as working on public productions you will get the opportunity to learn about the contemporary theatre scene and the history behind it, Health and Safety legislation, specialist software applications, stage craft, period style and much more. You will also work in small groups on project work designed to enhance your learning. Your second year is spent almost entirely on productions, developing your skills within your chosen pathway with a programme of study designed to suit your personal aims. The third year gives you the opportunity to lead and run the School productions working alongside the professional creative team. This provides you with true exposure to professional theatre and the opportunity to make contacts that will be useful to your future career. In this year you also undertake a work placement with a professional company or practitioner.

We want you to be a multi-skilled practitioner able to work in all areas of sound to build a sustained career in the audio industry. This course develops your skills in recorded sound, live sound and post-production.
We teach you why as well as how, so that you have a strong theoretical base to draw on and help you be adaptable to change. You learn and practice using industry-standard equipment in our studios and performance spaces (24/7 access to our studios during term-time).

Through projects with students on performance and making performance possible courses, you develop essential interpersonal and collaborative skills.

We want to strengthen your music skills in musicianship, music writing and producing music.
This means you’re able to build on your existing music skills while developing a working knowledge of songwriting and music production. You also receive one-to-one tuition in a chosen instrument (or voice). The course shares many modules and activities with our foundation year for BA (Hons) Music (Songwriting & Performance), so you learn alongside a wide group of musicians, which benefits you for ensemble work.

We want to produce versatile and creative technicians, stage managers and designers capable of working across the whole performing arts sector.
In your first year, you get a thorough grounding in a range of production skills in lighting, sound, stage management and design and construction. From the second year onwards you can specialise in areas that include Stage Management, Lighting, AV, Sound or Set and Prop Construction or continue building a broad skill set. Your training is highly practical. You initially learn the ropes in our performance spaces and in addition to working on our acting shows, you can work on dance performances, music gigs and outside events.

This course was previously titled BA/MArts Creative Technologies & Performance. Through this course, we want to facilitate innovative storytellers, filmmakers, creatives and technicians, who use new audio visual technologies to deliver exceptional content for film, tv, theatre, concert, and online audiences.
There are three pathways on this course:
- Film and TV Production
- Story, Script and Development
- Emerging Technology and Digital Performance
In your first year, you study all of the pathways and then from your second year you specialise (selecting a major and a minor from the pathways) to build the right set of multiple skills and knowledge to achieve a sustainable career. You can collaborate with other students (performers and those who make performance possible) to produce a portfolio of quality outputs, whether that’s films, animations, live or recorded performances or scripts. Your studies are underpinned by essential professional skills such as project management, financial planning and team work. You can either undertake this programme as a three-year BA or as a four-year integrated Masters.

The BA (Hons) Digital Design & Production offers specialist training in the rapidly expanding field of projection and video-based art forms, such as animation and motion-graphics, lighting and design.

This programme is aimed at anyone interested in pursuing their passion for video design and production through to a career in the creative industries and live events sector.
The programme adapts to the developments in industry and technology, using state-of-the-art equipment and facilities in line with the latest industry developments.
The teaching is practical and project-based, and you will work on a range of projects with professional designers, programmers and animators, such as gallery installations, architectural mapping displays, collaborative theatre projects, projection work for Guildhall productions and VJing at festivals and club nights.

This programme will engage the creative and technical skills of designers, technicians, operators and programmers in the creation and delivery of video in live performance contexts, and aims to:
● Provide the opportunity for students to develop their own artistic vision and creative workflow
● Develop appropriate technical skills in relation to video as part of a live performance
● Provide students with experiences and opportunities that provide insight into the working practices of modern, high-profile partners
● Develop students’ confidence, independence and self-reliance necessary for a career in a rapidly evolving digital industry

You will also be taught a range of technical skills, including:
● Software such as Adobe creative cloud, D3, Resolume, Notch, Mapping Matter, Cinema 4D, Touch Designer, Q Lab
● Technical management eg. equipment (projectors, media servers, rigging, cabling, IT etc.)

Stand out from the rest with our exceptional and rewarding BA (Hons) Top-Up degree.

During this one-year technical arts course, you’ll undertake a production role, which you will have selected, in your chosen specialism on one of our productions or short films.

With our support, you’ll undertake a significant work placement project where you’ll develop further professional practice and make vital connections within the industry.

The third requirement is a dissertation module, where, with our help, you will choose, define, research and complete a project of your own. You can either produce a 12,000-14,000 word dissertation, or a 6,000-7,000 word dissertation alongside a practical project and a 1,000 word report.

Industry-supported training for successful careers in theatre, film, television, and live events

This comprehensive vocational training will qualify you to be the best in the industry: capable, creative and highly sought-after by employers.

In this industry-leading two-year course you’ll develop the skills, knowledge and experience you need to have a successful and long-lasting career in theatre, film, television and beyond.

Exploring the capabilities of LAMDA’s three professional theatre spaces and our range of workshop and studio facilities, you’ll work side-by-side with experienced industry professionals to create and run LAMDA’s productions.

The nature of this vocational course means that you will be preparing every day for a professional career within the entertainment and events industry. We focus on developing your practical skills alongside principles.

During your first term you’ll begin to put the skills you’ve learnt into practice by staging a small production. From this point on you will continue to receive classes but will also start to get involved in LAMDA’s productions – either workshops or performances.

You’ll also undertake a professional work placement to gain experience in an area of your choice.

In addition, you will have opportunities to network with current industry practitioners, to ensure you’re prepared both for full-time employment and for freelancing.

This course is aimed at both costume-making and costume supervising.

Costume-making
We teach costume-making from first principles, from basic sewing skills, pattern-cutting and grading, through to the finished product. The basic sewing skills are organised in five levels:

- Hand sewing, seams, hems, fastening
- Pattern matching, tucks, cording, pleats and gathering, buttonholes, eyelets, false lacing
- Openings, bias rouleaux and piping, facings and using bias
- Fastenings (zips and fly opening)
- Pockets

Although some time is given to completing all levels, you will be expected to work on them outside teaching hours.

All these skills, as well as other maintenance and alterations, are practised throughout the course by working on all the RADA public productions as assistants. This improves work speed and gives experience in working with different fabrics and vintage costumes from our store, as well as working with professional designers and directors.

The forms of pattern-cutting we teach are flat (block), cutting on the stand, and draping – although investigation into further forms is also encouraged, such as going straight to fabric, sizing up from a grid, and taking a pattern from an existing garment. You will also learn pattern manipulation and grading throughout the course.

Some garments are taken through to completion as class projects, including corsetry, ruffs, period shirt tailoring and millinery. Others form personal projects in the second year, which are supervised, although you will be expected to work semi-independently in preparation for professional work.

Costume supervising
Costume supervising is taught in the classroom with script analysis, budget skills and communication and management skills. It is also practised, firstly with the second year BA (Hons) Acting students as part of a short Shakespeare project, which is toured around schools in the London area. You will then have the opportunity to supervise two or three RADA professional performances, or a film project.

We also provide experience of other elements of a wardrobe department. There are introductory classes in hair and make-up, wig knotting, history of costume and costume props, fabric treatments and props skills.