Course summary

This MFA Theatre Directing offers professionally recognised training for theatre directors. The result of a collaboration between Birkbeck and the Arts Council England, Equity and UK Theatre, the course provides a unique opportunity to work with theatre actors, writers and designers, while being introduced to the structural and financial realities of working as a director in the industry. You will spend time at a leading drama school, learning how actors are trained for today’s theatre. Intensive units with expert professionals, including noted practitioners such as Mike Leigh, Mike Alfreds, Vicki Mortimer, Natalie Abrahami and Lyndsey Turner, will concentrate on the director’s relationship with the designer and the writer, and offer a practical understanding of how theatre companies and pieces of work are funded and managed. You will then further develop your skills as a director through secondment to 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, Mercury Colchester, The Orange Tree and the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith. Highlights

• We are delighted to announce that the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation Scholarship will support a director from an under-represented or disadvantaged socio-economic background. The scholarship is for £23,100 over two years of training. The deadline for applications is Tuesday 2 May 2024.

• This course includes a six- to nine-month secondment with a theatre company, providing the opportunity to direct and work with professional actors; a three-month secondment to a leading drama school; extended mentoring relationships between students and professional directors; and regular observation of the course by a highly experienced group of professional directors.

• 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.

• theatre director

• artistic director

• associate director

• opera director

• theatre producer

• literary manager

• dramaturg.

• 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

• Leeds Playhouse

• Nottingham Playhouse.