Excellence and Innovation in Teaching
Central’s academic staff are involved in a variety of teaching-related ventures that happen as part of the curriculum here at Central as well as projects in other universities and in settings beyond the Academy.
By creating new challenges in our training environments, and establishing ourselves as world-leading centre for performance teaching and research excellence, we aspire to foster a climate of creativity, artistry and innovation.
There are approximately 70 members of permanent academic staff at Central who lead and work on the BA and MA/MFA courses. The examples of excellence and innovation in teaching and learning come from a unique culture that offers undergraduate degrees from acting to design, stage management to applied theatre and MA and MFA courses offering the largest concentration of postgraduate courses in Theatre in Europe.
To see examples of recent achievements of our Academic Staff, look at our Teaching Awards and Scholarship Outputs page as well as our Research Awards and Outputs page. We also employ a great number of industry professionals who also teach, drawing on their current innovative practice.
Crucially, much of our teaching operates at the intersection with industry and is realised with partners from a range of sectors, including theatres, local authorities, NGOs, charities, educational institutions, cultural festivals, and the museum sector. These partners are based in the UK and in many other countries around the world.
The quality of the expertise among our teaching staff is strong. Evidence of this excellence is in for example, the graduate successes in a project such as Ben Naylor’s Pop-Up Globe productions. It is in the Higher Education Academy-funded report on different approaches to teaching MA Applied Theatre practice co-authored by Dr Kat Low (Lecturer in Applied and Community Theatre) and Sue Mayo (associate artist, Magic Me). It is in the teaching that Peter McAllister does on the BA Acting as he draws upon his expertise in the Perdekamp Emotional Method (PEM) – Peter is one of only two qualified instructors in in the UK.
To find out more about our innovative teaching practices, and how our teaching makes a difference, click on any of the teaching projects listed above.
To find out more about the individual teaching staff at the institution please visit the Staff Profiles.
By creating new challenges in our training environments, and establishing ourselves as world-leading centre for performance teaching and research excellence, we aspire to foster a climate of creativity, artistry and innovation.
Related links
Dr Katharine Low, Lecturer in Applied and Community Theatre at the Central School of Speech & Drama, and Sue Mayo, associate artist at Magic Me co-led this research project.
Concrete Utopias in Dharavi
The TransActing project explores the issue of performer training for people who identify as trans and/or non-binary. It is led by Dr Catherine McNamara (Pro-Dean/ Director of Learning, Teaching and Student Experience).
Pop-up Globe (PUG) is a full-scale mobile replica of the Second Globe Theatre (1613-42).
This project has investigated the impact of psychophysical training techniques on the learning experiences of actors with SpLDs dyslexia and dyspraxia.
The International Community for Movement (ICM) aims to connect and extend the field of actor movement by offering workshops, discussion and talks for professional movement practitioners and actors.
As a world-leading centre for performance teaching and research excellence, we aspire to foster a climate of creativity, artistry and innovation.
A dance theatre show exploring weight and gravity, and what happens when we face the limits of our strength.
Amanda Brennan’s project seeks to develop and nurture women in film.
New Voices: New Writing is a new project that nurtures new partnerships and dialogues to encourage young people around the UK to get involved with writing for performance.
