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Birkbeck, University of London: Theatre Directing

Institution Birkbeck, University of London View institution profile
Department School of Creative Arts, Culture and Communication
Web http://www.bbk.ac.uk/
Telephone 0203 907 0700
Study type Taught

Summary

This MFA Theatre Directing offers you professionally recognised training. The result of a collaboration between Birkbeck and the Arts Council England, Equity and UK Theatre, it gives you a unique opportunity to work with theatre directors, actors, writers and designers, while also preparing you for the realities of working as a director in the industry. To pursue this MFA, you will have directed one or two university or professional-level productions and be focused on becoming a professional theatre director.

Why choose this course?

  • This course benefits from unique partnerships with industry bodies and leading practitioners.

  • It offers you a three-month secondment to a drama school learning how actors are trained for today’s theatre.

  • It also offers you a six-to-nine-month secondment with a theatre company where you will have the opportunity to assist on at least three productions. Collaborators include the Royal Exchange Manchester, Leicester Curve, Octagon Theatre Bolton and Mercury Theatre Colchester.

  • You will engage in workshops run by expert professionals, including Mike Leigh, Mike Alfreds, David Eldridge, Natalie Abrahami and Lyndsey Turner. These concentrate on the director’s relationship with the designer and the writer, to equip you with a practical understanding of how theatre companies and pieces of work are funded and managed.

What you will learn

On this course you will examine the director’s relationship with key collaborators: the actor, the writer, the designer, the industry and the production.

You will be introduced to a wide range of methodologies and the approaches of leading practitioners to encourage you to develop your own toolkit and unique artistic vision for the work you wish to create. The emphasis throughout is on your creative and intellectual development as an independent artist.

How you will learn

This is a full-time two-year course with classes and sessions that mostly take place during the day, but with the expectation that you will regularly attend theatre productions.

As well as the secondments at a drama school and a producing theatre, you will attend practical workshops and seminars with leading directors, writers, designers, casting, movement, intimacy and fight directors, who will share their work with you. You will also undertake two design projects with designers in training at Wimbledon College of Arts.

Highlights

  • Our Centre for Contemporary Theatre runs a postgraduate reading group and offers opportunities to show work in progress as part of our summer festival, Arts Week.

  • Birkbeck was ranked 2nd in the UK for its English Language and Literature research in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework.

  • We offer a number of bursaries for postgraduate students.

  • You may be eligible for the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation Scholarship which provides you with funding towards study costs and covers full course fees for this course.

Careers and employability

On graduating, you will have gained an array of transferable skills, including:

  • the skills, knowledge and ability to work as a professional-level theatre director

  • the ability to critically reflect on and to evolve your practice as an independent creative artist

  • communication and presentation skills

  • an ability to work independently and collaboratively.

Possible career paths include:

  • theatre director

  • artistic director

  • associate director

  • opera director

  • theatre producer

  • literary manager

  • dramaturg.

Recent graduates have directed productions at prestigious theatres including:

  • The National Theatre

  • The RSC

  • The Globe

  • The Royal Court

  • English National Opera

  • The Almeida

  • The Young Vic

  • The Old Vic

  • The Lyric Hammersmith

  • The Gate

  • Sheffield Theatres

  • The Royal Exchange Manchester.

Master of Fine Arts - MFA (PG)

Located in Bloomsbury, in the heart of London, everything the UK’s Capital city has to offer is on our doorstep.

We offer over 250 taught and research postgraduate programmes across the humanities and social sciences, business, law; and science and we’re a part of the prestigious University of London, one of the world’s best known and most highly regarded universities.

Birkbeck, University of London is built for the busy. We have over 200 years’ experience of providing exceptional learning experiences designed to fit in with students’ schedules. Our range of different study options allow our students to choose …

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