This course is ideal for those who want to pursue a professional career as a theatre director, underpinned by a clear intellectual understanding of their practice. It provides an opportunity to develop your directing practice through an active engagement with critical thinking so that you will have the tools to become an independent creative artist in the industry. The diversity of our student intake is our course’s strength. It’s open to those with professional as well as academic experience. As well as taking part in master classes by visiting professional artists, you will learn from and work with staffs who are both academics and professional practitioners with industry knowledge. You will study a broad range of approaches to performance-making from traditional text-based work to intercultural and digital performance and contemporary devising. This course takes a practice-based approach as it explores different directing methodologies – naturalism, realism, intercultural performance and contemporary devising practices. You will gain the skills needed to create innovative and exciting performance work and to be able to operate as a professional theatre director and independent creative producer. Your modules will feature Director Training, which looks at the key building blocks of working with an actor on voice, body and offers an in-depth Stanislavskian approach for the director working with text. You will study a range of contemporary performance practices as well as honing advanced research skills as you prepare for your dissertation piece – a final directorial showcase performance to be enacted in a professional venue. The work you will be doing with theatre professionals and the constructive help and advice you will receive from professional actors throughout your course is all geared towards helping you establish yourself in the industry. Your final degree show will act as your showcase to attract agents and develop your professional networks. By having your own mentor in the last six months of your course, you will not only gain important insight and advice about the technical aspects of acting but you will receive invaluable help in developing important contacts.