MFA Directing

Our two-year MFA gives you the opportunity to launch your career as a director with a full run in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Overview

This course has been launched to extend a great opportunity for trainee directors.

Working in the heart of the festival city, there will be time to work with actors on all years of the BA Acting & English and the BA Acting for Stage & Screen courses.

You'll be working on contemporary and classic texts and alongside trainee playwrights to create new work.

You'll have dedicated industry-recognised mentors providing support throughout your training time and you’ll be studying in one of the most culturally-vibrant cities in the world.

The two-year duration gives you time to truly develop skills and creativity, and also allows you to network and build relationships with actors and writers who can make an impact on your career after you graduate.

Course details

We believe that there is no standard approach to the training of theatre directors. The art is a combination of visual, textual, and communicative acuity and every director is unique. For that reason the course is designed to be individually responsive to each student’s interests and experience. Most modules are heavily mentor-based, which means that you always have advice, expertise, and guidance on hand as you explore your artistic potential.

The courses are taught by a team of industry professionals: Mark Thomson (Directing) has worked with most of the great names in British theatre and served as Artistic Director of Edinburgh's prestigious Lyceum Theatre for 13 years.

How you’ll be taught

The course is structured over 5 trimesters and, along with many opportunities to direct various projects and to assistant direct public shows, you’ll learn by a variety of teaching methods including lectures, tutorials and independent study.

Assessments

The majority of your assessments are based on a variety of practical performances and are the culmination of workshops and focused rehearsals, supported by tutorials.

Careers

While we can’t predict the future, we can be certain that an ever-expanding range of entertainment platforms will require an ever-expanding range of content.

We believe that directors trained in the core skills of good story-telling, inspiring great performance, working effectively and creatively in a collaborative environment, preparing and adhering to schedules and budgets, and understanding a variety of marketing possibilities will be able to adapt their work to a variety of platforms.

This course aims to train such graduates, who can see unlimited potential and a variety of opportunities for themselves in the entertainment industry.

The entry requirement for this course is a Bachelor (Honours) Degree at 2:2 or above, preferably with a background in Drama or Humanities. We may also consider lesser qualifications if you have sufficient professional work experience within the industry.