Placements/Work Experience

Workplace learning is a feature of several courses at postgraduate and undergraduate level and Central has placement agreements with a large number of educational and arts organisations. For example, undergraduate students have recently worked on international tours with Robert LePage and on numerous West End shows, performed in professional companies, undertaken applied theatre work in Kosovo and Costa Rica, curated festivals of new performance arts at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts and at the Roundhouse, visited Poland to collaborate with the Grotowski Institute and taken performance and design work to the Prague Quadrennial exhibition of scenography and performance, all as a part of their programmes of study. In addition, many professional companies (including Complicite, Blind Summit, the BBC, the Brodsky Quartet and the Royal Shakespeare Company) have chosen to develop and rehearse new work at Central.

On the technical production side, companies such as White Light, Yamaha, Ableton Live and d&b audiotechnik regularly use Central for product launches or demonstrations, with students undertaking roles in the organisation of these events, as well as having the opportunity to attend and network with leading industry figures. Such companies, in return, ensure that Central students get plenty of experience with their current product lines, and even sometimes involve them in developing new technologies.

Industry placements for all students are at the heart of the Central School of Speech & Drama's mission and our one-to-one, bespoke approach sets us apart from other higher education  or theatre training establishments.  There are a wide variety of placements undertaken by students at Central with an ever-growing number of partnership organisations. Students experience differing levels of involvement at their host organisation depending on their course and level. Some involve undertaking the responsibilities of a fully qualified professional as an assessed learning outcome; while others use the opportunity to observe and reflect on the practice of leading practitioners in a working environment.

Examples of past national and international placements and partnerships include: 

  • Akademi
  • Albany Theatre
  • Almeida Theatre
  • Academy of Live and Recorded Arts (ALRA)
  • Apollo Theatre Victoria
  • Applied Theatre Consultants Ltd, New Zealand
  • Australian Ballet Opera
  • Barbican Centre
  • Battersea Arts Centre
  • BBC
  • Be Loud! Be Proud!
  • Big Fish Theatre Company
  • Blind Summit
  • Brighton Photography Biennial
  • Bristol Old Vic
  • British Film Institute (BFI)
  • Camden Council Arts
  • Cardboard Citizens
  • Centre for Children's Theatre Development, Kosovo
  • Clean Break
  • Cool Flight Ltd
  • Divya Bhatia, India
  • Donmar Warehouse
  • Dramatic English Limited
  • DreamArts
  • Dundee Rep Theatre
  • DV8
  • East 15 Acting School
  • English & Media Centre
  • English National Opera
  • English Pocket Opera & Children’s Music
  • Workshop
  • Epic Theatre Ensemble
  • Essential Lighting
  • Eurobeat (BlueBox Productions)
  • Everyman Theatre
  • Extreme Locations Rigging
  • Factory Theatre
  • Finnish National Opera
  • Frantic Assembly
  • Gate Theatre
  • Gendered Intelligence
  • Glasgow Citizens Theatre
  • Greenwich Dance Agency
  • Guildford School of Acting
  • Half Moon Young People’s Theatre
  • Hampstead Theatre
  • Heart & Soul
  • Hoi Polloi
  • IceandFire
  • Immediate Theatre
  • InSite Performance, British Museum
  • International Broadcasting Trust
  • Italia Conti Academy of Theatre
  • Kali Theatre
  • Kids Company
  • Little Angel Theatre
  • London Bubble
  • London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT)
  • London Transport Museum
  • Lost Vagueness
  • Lowdham Grange Male Prision
  • Lyric Theatre Hammersmith
  • Met Film
  • Michael Chekhov Studio
  • Moscow Art Theatre School, Russia
  • Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts
  • National Association of Youth Theatres (NAYT)
  • National Theatre
  • National Youth Music Theatre
  • North American Actors Association
  • Old Vic
  • Oval House Theatre
  • Oxford School of Drama
  • Paines Plough Theatre
  • Para Active
  • Peer Productions
  • People Show
  • Phil Reynolds Costumes
  • Pitlochry Festival Theatre
  • Punchdrunk Theatrics
  • Roundhouse
  • Royal Court Theatre
  • Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh
  • Royal Opera House
  • Royal Shakespeare Company
  • Running Bare Pictures
  • Sadlers Wells Theatre
  • Schlosstheater Celle
  • Science Museum
  • Shakespeare’s Globe
  • Shared Experience
  • Shoot
  • Soho Theatre Company
  • Southwark Playhouse
  • Tears Group
  • Theatre O
  • Theatre-rites
  • Theatre Royal Stratford East
  • Trestle Theatre Company
  • Trinity Laban Conservatoire
  • of Music and Dance
  • True Heart Theatre
  • United World College of Sout East Asis, Singapore
  • Unpacked
  • Vertigo Rigging Ltd
  • Vilniaus Senamiesco Teatras
  • WAC Performing Arts & Media Centre
  • Welsh National Opera
  • White Light Ltd
  • Wormwood Scrubs
  • Yellow Earth Theatre Company
  • Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
  • York Theatre Royal
  • Young Shakespeare Company
  • Young Vic Theatre Company.