Mountview produces around 26 plays and musicals in theatres across London, the UK and internationally each year, giving Stage Management students a vast array of learning experiences.
We offer three training levels: a two-year Foundation Degree (FdA) which provides a fast-track training and a three-year BA (Hons) with greater experience. For students with previous experience who are looking to formalise their skills and develop industry contacts we also offers a one-year Diploma specialising in stage management.
Our vocational, hands-on course has seen graduates go on to work with many diverse companies including National Theatre,
London Olympics/Paralympics and Matilda The Musical.
Our practical training runs with a minimum of 30 hours per week, 36 weeks per year. It begins with workshops covering core skills in all areas of production arts with training from experienced industry professionals. Students then move quickly on to practical show roles in stage management.
Stage Management training covers:
Prompt book and show calling
Creative research including period-specific work
Working with pyrotechnics and blank firing weapons
Co-ordination and project management
Cueing to music
Prop making and sourcing
Stage managing musicals, classics and new writing
Working at some of London’s leading theatres
Mountview’s vocational, hands-on courses in sound have seen graduates go on to be production sound engineers and sound designers in the West End, across the UK and internationally.
What sets Mountview apart from other drama schools is that you get vast experience working on musicals, mixing sound for West End-size casts.
We offer three training levels: a two-year Foundation Degree (FdA) which provides a fast-track training and a three-year BA (Hons) with greater experience and the possibility of design roles. For students with previous experience who are looking to formalise their skills and develop industry contacts we also offers a one-year Diploma specialising in sound.
Our practical training runs over 30 hours per week, 36 weeks per year. You’ll begin with workshops covering core skills in all areas of production arts before moving quickly on to practical show roles.
Strong emphasis is placed on learning through practice. There is continuous assessment of coursework and practical show roles throughout. All modules are compulsory.
Students gain first-hand experience of working alongside industry professionals including sound designers, engineers, radio mic fitters and programmers.
SOUND TRAINING COVERS:
Hands-on training with contemporary sound equipment
Studio skills including recording and editing technology and techniques
Understanding and designing sound systems
Rigging and balancing sound systems
Prepping, fitting and monitoring radio mic systems
Programming and mixing industry standard sound desks on plays and musicals
Networking, soldering and other skills needed by the modern production professional
Sound design for plays and musicals (BA only)
There is an ever-increasing demand for performers who combine first-rate acting ability with a high level of musicianship.
Mountview’s Actor Musician course develops these dual skills to the highest level, creating graduates who combine skills in acting and music in their professional lives.
Whilst a high level of prior musical experience is a pre-requisite, it is not necessary to have achieved formal music qualifications.
There are limited places available each year and students are taught in small groups. Teaching mirrors Mountview’s actor training but with specialised music elements and you’ll receive over 30 hours of direct teaching time each week including one-to-one singing and instrumental lessons.
The course develops technical skills through workshops and performance opportunities. During the course you’ll engage in a range of actor musician projects, working on Shakespeare, contemporary plays, and musicals as well as devising original work. Students engage with a range of classic and contemporary texts for example If You Don’t Let Us Dram, We Won’t Let You Sleep by Anders Lustgarten, Colder Than Here by Laura Wade, His Dark Materials adaptation by Nicholas Wright, Flora the Red Menace by George Abbott, Kander and Ebb, Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris by Mort Shuman and Eric Blau.
Study takes place over three 12-week terms a year.
The first half of each term is devoted to skills classes whilst in the second half of each term you will work on performance projects which are presented in-house to fellow students and staff.
In the second year you apply your skills in collaboration classes which include peer integration and team teaching to enhance your creativity and help you to make connections between subjects. Additionally, there is time given to tailored ‘surgeries’ to focus on detail and help you to develop your independence and confidence in your practice.
You’ll also work closely with Mountview’s Industry Liaison Manager to understand and prepare for life as a working actor.
The focus of the third year is film, recorded voice, public performances and reflecting on acting practice. You’ll work with professional directors to present a range of productions and an industry showcase and create a voice and film showreel. Audiences include agents, casting directors and other industry figures as well as the general public.
MOUNTVIEW’S PART TIME FOUNDATION IN MUSICAL THEATRE COVERS THE CORE ELEMENTS OF TRIPLE THREAT TRAINING: ACTING, SINGING AND DANCE.
With classes taking place three evenings per week students are able to work alongside their studies to support themselves financially. This ability to work combined with competitive course fees makes this one of the most accessible Musical Theatre Foundation courses in the UK.
The course promises a rigorous introduction to the performance skills required in the musical theatre discipline. The training is equally focussed on acting, singing and dance with a balance of 40% skills, 35% audition preparation and 25% performance-based work.
Demands on the students are high and the course will develop core technique and creativity and prepare students for further training and auditions.
The training includes a focused audition preparation module allowing students to develop technique and repertoire for future drama school auditions.
The course is taught from September to April, with 9 hours each week over three evenings.
Tailor your studies to suit your musical interests on our four-year Bachelor of Music (BMus) degree course.
THIS COURSE IS RIGHT FOR YOU IF…
You’re passionate about music and your specialism (or instrument). The BMus provides a solid foundation for a career in music, whether you’d like to be a performer, composer, teacher or to work in another related field.
CORE ELEMENTS OF THE BMUS
1. Principal study
This is the focal point of your musical development and includes individual lessons as well as a combination of masterclasses, performance classes, chamber music, concerts and everything else you do in your specialism. The focus for performers is on gaining experience in public concerts.
2. Artist development
We offer a wide range of activities, events and modules for you to hone your skills in studio recording and editing techniques, self-promotion and marketing, writing CVs, making funding applications, understanding the music business and working in arts management.
You can also get involved in Open Academy, which has an active programme aimed at helping people in the community. If you want to develop your teaching skills, you can study for the Academy’s teaching licence (LRAM), too.
3. Academic study
Academic study is essential to your creative and intellectual development. Core modules in Aural, Analysis and History reinforce your awareness as a listener, develop your interpretative abilities and extend your knowledge and imagination.
ONE YEAR COURSES – THE OPTIONS
The BMus is our main undergraduate course, but it isn’t the only one. We also offer three one-year options, which let you study at the Academy as an enrolled member of the student body without committing to a full degree course with us.
This means you’ll benefit from all the facilities offered to our degree students, including the library, computers and practice rooms, as well as enjoying a variety of performance opportunities.
1. Gap year course
This course is right for you if you love music but know you want to study something else for your main degree in future. It’s the ideal fit if you’re finishing secondary school (high school) and are looking for a gap-year opportunity, enabling you to reach a high level of achievement in music, while also allowing you to pursue another career path.
2. Organ foundation course
This is for gap-year students preparing for an organ scholarship at Oxford or Cambridge, or for those who want to develop organ and choral direction skills before starting formal university or conservatoire training.
3. Exchanges and study abroad schemes
The Academy has exchange and study-abroad agreements with conservatoires across the world. Placements are normally for a full academic year, although shorter times may be possible. This allows non-UK students studying for a music degree elsewhere to benefit from a conservatoire education as part of their degree studies at their ‘home’ institution.
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.
This vocational MA/MFA programme builds on and extends the work developed on our ground-breaking BA (Hons) Actor Musicianship programme, drawing on our strong links to theatre makers, directors, choreographers, writers, musical directors and performers involved in the development of this innovative area of theatre practice.
Taught through vocational training, practice research and project work, it aims to develop interdisciplinarity as a core theatre making tool, with a focus on innovation and work that responds to audience, place and space.
Why choose this course?
• From Bradford to Broadway, actor-musicianship is now part of mainstream theatre culture, whilst remaining connected to its roots in the alternative theatre movement.
• This unique MA offers you the opportunity to explore how to integrate the skills of music-making and acting in performance. Equipping you to create and perform work that contains the visceral power and poetry synonymous with actor-musicianship.
• Rose Bruford College was the first to develop an actor-musician training course and is regarded as the world-leader in this field with a long history of graduates working at the forefront of this area of theatre practice.
• Explore how musical and acting processes can interrelate and feed each other.
• This course offers an intensive and in-depth exploration of how musical and acting processes can interrelate and feed each other. Creating work that is both music as theatre and theatre as music.
The programme’s strong ties to industry partners will be further enhanced by an exploration of place, space and community. Asking how this most inclusive of theatre forms can continue to engage audiences of all ages; developing and building on the origins of the actor-musician movement as an alternative and progressive theatre form, with a history of creating surprising and engaging live theatre experiences in all sorts of places and spaces.
Connected to London and Kent and with an international reputation, our Sidcup campus offers an ideal location to explore how actor-musicianship can continue to play a part in both international mainstream theatre and work that seeks to enrich and develop new and hard to reach audiences.
Location: Sidcup
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
