Theatre Directing MFA

Birkbeck, University of London

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 MFA Theatre Directing 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, Citizens Theatre in Glasgow, Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond, Octagon Theatre in Bolton, Polka Theatre in London and the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith. You will engage in workshops run by expert professionals, including noted practitioners such as 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, and 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.