The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama

The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama offers a model of cross-disciplinary learning, training people for specialist roles within the professional performing arts, as well as those who make theatre and performance for a social purpose, or use drama techniques outside of traditional theatre or mainstream media to empower communities. In 2017, Central was awarded Gold Status in the Teaching Excellence Framework recognising its students achieve ‘outstanding outcomes’ which ‘notably exceed benchmarks’.

Central’s mission is to develop practitioners and researchers who shape the future of theatre and performance.

Central’s academic faculty is one of the largest concentrations of specialist theatre and performance tutors and researchers in the world. Many come from professional practice and extensive industry links. Over 50% of the practical classes and productions that students undertake are taught, directed, mentored, supervised or critiqued by visiting professional practitioners from industry. With a student body of over 1000, Central creates industry-aligned learning opportunities through projects, placements and productions made jointly with professional companies.

The School also supports a dynamic research community of staff, postdoctoral fellows and postgraduate research students promoting an inclusive vision of theatre and performance and their place in 21st century society.