The School is unique in its wide range of professional training opportunities and industry-standard facilities. Students across all courses work together on the School’s productions, creating a company feel to the training, with everyone working to professional disciplines and deadlines. Students are trained in small groups, allowing individual attention both to their skills training and career advice. We place great emphasis on preparing students for future employment, with opportunities for work placements, interviews with employers, CV writing and advice on contracts and unions.
Theatre skills are taught at our Downside Road sites where classes and workshops in stage management, propmaking, scenic construction, lighting and sound provide a foundation of skills which are then applied to public productions. Assembly and painting of scenery takes place in our South Bristol workshops. Public theatre productions take place in local professional venues. The School works closely with the Bristol Old Vic, performing five productions in its Main House and Studio theatres, three times a year at the Redgrave Theatre, on tour to over twenty venues in Bristol and the West Country and in a season of pub-theatre productions.
Television and Radio Drama training takes place at Christchurch Studios in Clifton Village. This former BBC facility provides students with a unique opportunity to work in a world class recording environment with professional directors to produce broadcast quality work using both analogue and digital equipment. Students train on single and multi-camera television work and radio drama recordings and post-production projects, learning the range of skills required for careers in this branch of the Arts and Entertainment Industry.