Rose Bruford College of Theatre & Performance (originally called the Rose Bruford Training College of Speech and Drama) is a British drama school, offering university-level and professional vocational training for theatre and performance and the BA and MA degrees, based in Sidcup, Southeast London.
Contents |
Founded in 1950, Rose Bruford "pioneered the first acting degree in 1976."[1] It is "one of the largest, most comprehensive providers of vocational degrees in theatre and related arts in Western Europe."[2] According to Rose Bruford College's official website, it provides innovative degree courses in drama training, including degrees in performance like Acting, Actor Musicianship, and European and American Theatre Arts, plus offering courses in other practices and technoligies of theatre, such as Costume Production, Lighting Design, Lighting Control, Performance Sound, Scenic Arts, Theatre Design and Stage Management.[3]
Principal and Chief Executive, Professor Michael Earley, was formerly Chief Producer of Plays for BBC Radio Drama and has headed theatre programmes at the University of Lincoln (UK) and Yale University (US). Director Sir Richard Eyre became the first President of Rose Bruford College in July 2010.
Joining vocational training programmes across disciplines, Rose Bruford College enables students of different professions in the performing arts to collaborate throughout their training. Students stage theatre productions in the four on-campus theatre performance spaces: the 300-seat theatre in the round Rose Theatre, the intimate Barn Theatre or the two black box studio spaces. Third year undergraduate students present their shows in London venues ranging from the Unicorn Theatre to the Leicester Square Theatre..
The college enjoys various international contacts with drama schools in both Europe and North America. It matriculates a substantial number of international students and places its students in high-ranking drama training institutions outside the United Kingdom.
Rose Bruford College's vocational courses are accredited by the National Council for Drama Training, and it is a member of The Conference of Drama Schools (CDS).[4][5] The College's undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications and programmes are validated by the University of Manchester.[1][2][6]
The College's research facilities and archives include: the Stanislavski Centre; the Clive Barker Library;[7] and the David Bolland Collection, which is devoted to material about Kathakali. Members or former members of its faculty serve as editors and/or on the editorial boards of performing-arts journals like New Theatre Quarterly (Simon Trussler, co-editor) and Performance Prompt.[8]
In partnership with the London V&A Theatre Collections Online, the College also sponsors and supports the web-based UK theatre audio-discussion site TheatreVoice.
Its material relating to research, knowledge transfer, and community outreach is featured online in TheatreFutures.[9]
Rose Bruford College is not the only theatrical college to be based in Sidcup. Bird College, which specialises in dance and musical theatre, is also based in the town.
The college was founded in 1950 in an 18th-century Heritage-listed manor house Lamorbey House in Sidcup in the Greater London area by actress, drama tutor and author Rose Bruford.[10][11] The current campus encompasses both the manor house and a modern set of buildings completed in 2002.[10] For some time, there was also a campus situated in Deptford, near Greenwich in South East London, which was closed when the college incorporated all of its courses on the Sidcup campus.
Rose Bruford College serves as the setting for fictional drama school Salinger College in the 2007 TV drama series Nearly Famous.
The college currently offers courses in the following fields of performing arts training: