Stage Management and Technical Theatre, BA

at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama

Year 1

Starting the course, you will begin expanding your knowledge of different job roles in professional theatre-making and how they relate to each other. This will include learning core technical theatre skills such as risk management, lighting, sound, construction, text analysis, technical drawings and prop sourcing. At different points in the year you will be working on projects with your immediate peers on the course and at other times with your wider year group of students across the BA Theatre Practice programme. This presents you with the opportunity to begin exploring and honing your communication skills with a diverse range of practitioners; experimenting with problem solving techniques in different situations to help you manage the professional challenges you will encounter.
 

Year 2

Your second year will be designed as a bespoke year in consultation with your tutor. This enables you a more in depth exploration of the areas of theatre making you are interested in, alongside developing further technical skills: pyrotechnics and stage weaponry, for example. There are options to undertake positions on Central’s broad range of public productions and collaborative projects; in a role such as Assistant Stage Manager or Head of Stage. Alternatively, an in-depth specialist skill-building project could be undertaken in areas that include event rigging, digital technologies, and construction processes. 
 

Year 3

The third year focuses on professional development and preparation for you to enter the industry. During the year, you will have opportunity to undertake a senior role on one of Central’s public productions. In this role you will work with a diverse team of fellow students and visiting professional practitioners. In addition, you will be able to undertake industry placements, in an area that compliments your interests and supports your personal goals and ambitions. Over the year, you will develop a career plan, setting out the next steps in your professional life, advised by leading industry figures, who will offer suggestions to support your chosen path into the industry.

Our standard academic entry requirements range between 120 and 64 UCAS tariff points. You can see how many tariff points your qualifications would gain on the UCAS Tariff Calculator. International qualifications and others not covered within the UCAS tariff can also be accepted.
 

Please note that we make lower offers (including unconditional) to exceptional candidates and those who have alternative or prior experience to offer. All candidates invited to interview are asked to bring a portfolio. Interview and portfolio are key factors in determining which applicants are accepted on to the course.

English Language Requirements

Applicants for whom English is not their first language are required to prove their English language proficiency by gaining an overall score of 7.0 in an IELTS test. We do accept equivalent English language qualifications. Applicants are advised to gain this certification as early as possible and more information can be found
 

The fees for Stage Management and Technical Theatre, BA  may vary from £20,000 to £35,000 annually for tuition fees. The fee's prices may get higher for International Students.

Graduates of BA Theatre Practice have progressed into a wide variety of professional careers in the creative industries; such as stage management at all scales of performance, technical and production management, pyrotechnics, technical drawing, automation engineering and producing.

Students have undertaken a variety of placements in many areas of the performing arts industry. London theatre companies include the National Theatre, English National Opera, the Young Vic, Hampstead Theatre, Kiln Theatre and Unicorn Theatre, as well as receiving houses such as Sadler’s Wells, Hackney Empire, the Pleasance Theatre and many West End theatres. Touring theatre companies include Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, English Touring Opera, Kneehigh Theatre, Ambassador theatre Group, dreamthinkspeak, Shunt, Goat and Monkey, Walk the Plank, The World Famous and Emergency Exit Arts.