<p>Hey, I just came across this site, and I'm wondering if anyone can help me. I'll be applying for grad school next year. I would like to get my MFA in Stage Mgmt or Theatre Production. Does anyone know of any good schools in the UK for this?</p>
<p>possibly...
Royal Scottish Academy Music and Drama
London Academy of Performing Arts
London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art
Guildhall School of Music and Drama</p>
Please Note: Depending on what you want, an MA can suffice. But most jobs come with the MFA requirement.
RADA (London) - (Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts) of course
Trinity (Dublin) - LIR (National Academy of Dramatic Arts at Trinity)
Both hard to get into, the gold standard, and expensive if you don’t have EU passport. Cost is no worse than college here, but you are strictly on your own as far as $$ goes (US student loans are available).
RADA can run 2 or 3 years depending on the program, the Lir is 1 year. RADA and Lir do some work together, and have a few shared teaching professionals and performance opportunities. You live on the economy in London and in Dublin.
Trinity http://www.tcd.ie/study/non-eu/postgraduate/ (LIR http://www.thelir.ie/ ) is a 1 calendar year MFA course in theatre design. Don’t know about the Stage mgmt. They are directly associated with RADA. Trinity is hard to get into. A 3.6 overall 4 year gpa is the very minimum. (Undergrad admittance is is said to be a 1950 SAT) You have to be admitted to both Trinity AND Lir. (I understand that occasionally a student is recommended from a program, but is not admitted by the university.)
You get 100 words to make your case - “Why are you such a special little snowflake?” (they may request your longer version if they are interested). There IS an interview on Skype. The timeline can be later than US schools, so double check dates. You will need cash in advance (2,000 euros deposit, airfare, initial housing costs, a new high power laptop, etc)
Re any school: Do your homework !!! - Employment record after graduation, look at the resumes of present/past graduates, look at the resumes of the professors (including any staff down to the janitor - if you can find it). If the past graduates have (pre MFA) resumes similar to yours, you are probably in the right place. If not, keep looking. If the prof’s resumes aren’t “where you want to be in 10 years”, your are not in the right place, keep looking. After that, it’s a crap shoot.
Trinity, has a seriously difficult schedule. (RADA can run 2-3 years) You are in class (1:1 or in groups) about 35 hours a week, plus production work in the evening, plus classwork, etc etc.
Both Trinity and RADA are professional degrees, not research degrees. I don’t know anything about the other schools listed here, but be sure you know what you want from your MFA and that it matches what a prospective institution offers. That bill for $35,000 - 50,000 WILL come due!