Collaboration and creativity: catching up with our graduate news

An essential part of modern drama training, the RWCMD David Rowe-Beddoe Shakespeare Prize celebrates the fundamentals of verse speaking and appreciation of language. 

Our graduates have been showcasing their ability with the Bard on stage again this season, with 2025 graduate Siân Stephens making her stage and RSC debut as the lead Sylvia in the RSC’s new production of ‘Two Gentlemen of Verona,' designed to introduce Shakespeare to families. 

This term, 'Two Gentlemen’ director Joanna Bowman will be coming to the College to direct our students in ‘Hamlet’ as part of our Richard Burton centenary season. 

And we even have a graduate playing Shakespeare himself. Edward Bluemel, known for his television roles in ‘Killing Eve’ and ‘Sex Education’ among others, plays the Swan of Avon, alongside Ncuti Gatwa as Kit Marlowe in the RSC’s ‘Born with Teeth,’ directed by its Co-Artistic Director and RWCMD Fellow Daniel Evans.

Keeping it in the RWCMD family, Stage Management grad Rachel Young is the DSM (Deputy Stage Manager), and graduate and College Stage Combat lecturer Kev McCurdy is the Fight Director.

The College’s extraordinary track record for the Linbury Prize for Stage Design winners and finalists remains unchallenged, with almost half of the 60 finalists over the last five Linbury Prize years having studied at RWCMD. 

They're a great showcase for the support this prestigious prize gives to designers to develop a sustainable career in the creative industry, going on to successful careers designing productions across theatre, ballet, opera and screen: 

Following their run of awards, including a Tony award each, this year it was a real RWCMD Design fest for them at the Oliviers: Tom was nominated for Best Costume Design, but was pipped to the winning post by Gabriella for ‘Starlight Express’, winning instead for Best Set Design for ‘Fiddler on the Roof.’ 

As well as working on the costumes for Ncuti Gatwa’s anarchic and subversive ‘The Importance of Being Ernest’ at the National Theatre, designer Petros Kourtellaris was also assistant designer and maker for the drag looks for 'Neverland' club for the television production of BBC's bilingual series, 'Lost Boys and Fairies.

TK Hay has won The Arts Foundation's Theatre Fellowship Award - a prestigious award supporting emerging theatre designers - having won The Stage Debut Award for Best Designer in 2022. Last year he designed the set for ‘G*d is a Woman’ in Singapore, which won The Straits Times Life Theatre award for Best Production. This year he's designed for ‘Scenes from a Repatriation’ at the Royal Court Theatre, and ‘The Pea and the Princess' at the Polka Theatre.

In opera, April Dalton is the Set and Costume Designer on the English Touring Opera’s ‘The Elixir of Love’, working alongside Lighting Designer and Stage Management grad Jamie Platt.

Also, as we hold space for the sequel - we're celebrating being part of Team Green on 'Wicked'...

Collaboration is key to the College’s community, bringing artists together from music and drama, often to create new and provocative work: 

New Welsh-language opera ‘Tanau’r Lloer‘/ ‘Fires of the Moon’, commissioned by Channel 4 and S4C, had its premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Described as a genre-bending exploration of grief, memory and mental illness and the power of creation, it brings together a host of Welsh talent including from the College, at the last count, actor Annes Elwy, musical theatre grad Levi Tyrell Johnson, and opera graduates, soprano Elin Pritchard, baritone Emyr Wyn Jones and tenor Huw Ynyr.

It's scheduled to be shown on S4C and Channel 4 during 2026. 

Alongside the summer extravaganza dancing with Will Smith, our Musical Theatre grads are working hard and putting their training into practice.  

Keeping it in the RWCMD family - quite literally -  Jhanaica Mook has just finished in ‘101 Dalmatians’ at the Eventim Apollo, while her sister Kai-Enna Mook has just join the Musical Theatre course.

On the sisters theme, Eddy Osborne is currently appearing in ‘Starlight Express’ in Germany, and her sister Scarlett is starting her second year of the Musical Theatre course here at RWCMD. We're so glad the course has inspired such family appreciation! 

Our Stage Managers course gives our graduates the skills to work on a huge range of projects from opera to theatre to major tours and events, keeping the show on the road: 

Charlotte Dukes won the Stage Electrics & Clear-Com Stage Management Team Award for her role as Assistant Stage Manager for 'Fiddler on the Roof' at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre - working, of course, with Olivier winning grad Tom Scutt's set and costume designs. 

Some of our MA Stage Managers from recent years worked together at Glyndebourne opera this summer: Sophie Kingdom, Joe Lenehan and Zoe Doy working as ASM (Assistant Stage Manager) and Lydia Coomes in the sound department, and Millie Freeman, who graduated this July, is working over the autumn season.

Also working with opera is Alex Brown who recently stage managed WNO's Youth Opera show, 'Panig! Attack!!', a new bilingual commission to celebrate its 20th anniversary, bringing together around 70 children, and previous members of the Youth Opera who have gone on to graduate from RWCMD. 

Alex got the role through her placement at WNO when she was Deputy Stage Manager for Youth Opera, and Assistant Stage manager for WNO's 'Il Tabarro.'  She's currently working on WNO's 'Candide' and 'Tosca,' which includes recent Opera graduate Owain Rowlands. 

Recent graduate Matthew Dean is a freelance lighting operator / programmer, working on large events festivals and bespoke solo shows, and as lighting director for artists like David Guetta and DJ Snake’s global tours.

The 2025 Mercury Prize 12 ‘Albums of the Year’ have been announced by Lauren Laverne on BBC Radio 6 - and not one but two of our Jazz grads are included, alongside names like CMAT and Pulp.  

Huge congratulations to Emma-Jean Thackray for 'Wierdo', and Joe Webb for 'Hamstrings & Hurricanes.'

The Prize recognises the best new British and Irish music, celebrating artistic achievement across an eclectic range of contemporary genres – a platform for up and coming artists and their work.

Pob lwc to them both for the Awards Show takes place on 16th October with live performances from many of the shortlisted artists. Watch this space.

And talking of spotting new talent, earlier this year Harp grad Mari Kelly was recognised as one of Classic FM’s rising stars in their 30 classical music artists under 30.

Baritone Owain Rowlands who graduated in July, has been named a WNO Associate.  As part of his Associate’s role he’ll perform at WNO in the upcoming production of ‘Tosca’ and at the Associate Artists Recital in July.

Among the many graduates performing at the Proms this year in ensembles and orchestras, and with BBC NOW Chorus at the Proms, Corey Morris, Principal Trumpet No 3 at BBC NOW, played Mahler Third in the proms at the Royal Albert Hall. 

He played the famous offstage trumpet solo up in the galleries, described as ‘a moment of pure magic’ by the Observer, and ‘worth the admission price on their own, a delicious helping of distant nostalgia’ by Bachtrack.
Listen to the full work on BBC Sounds.

Joining Corey and the many tutors and grads, including most recent RWCMD additions, Dafydd Thomas, Trombone and  Lowri Taffinder, Viola, at BBC NOW, is Woodwind grad and College tutor Will White who has just joined as a clarinettist. 

London was also celebrating RWCMD: Composition student and climate activist Nina Martin brought an element of North Wales there this summer. ‘Betws-y-Coed' was one of a trio of world premieres from the winners of its 2025 Young Composer Competition, performed by National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain. 

Importantly for Nina the competition gave her, 'a platform to express my concern on the most important issue of our generation, the climate crisis.

I believe that connecting audiences to nature through music has the potential to empower a cultural shift to being kinder and more compassionate towards our planet.’

It’s always hard to miss our actors on your television screen, and this autumn there are lots of grads for you to spot as you settle down for cosy autumnal nights in. As always, there are too many to mention, but to namecheck a few: 

Tom Cullen, who earlier this year was sporting 1980’s swimwear as one of the bad guys in BBC’s ‘The Gold’, gets right up to date in the dual language ‘Mudtown,’ with Erin Richards, along with a raft of Welsh grads, including recent grad Lauren Morais as Erin’s daughter.

Tom then partners with Lola Petticrew in the upcoming ‘Trespass’ on Channel 4. Lola recently won a prestigious IFTA (Irish Film & Television Award) alongside long-term friend and fellow grad Anthony Boyle, who is currently starring alongside James Norton as one of the ‘House of Guinness’ clan on Netflix. 

Having won an Olivier and a Tony nomination for his role in 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' straight after graduating, he's since worked with Tom Hanks and Stephen Spielberg, and was one of the leads in the Disney + series 'Shardlake,' alongside fellow graduate Arthur Hughes who played the title character. 

Eve Myles is in her post-Keeping Faith era, starring in BBC 1 thriller 'The Guest,' ITV's  'Cold Water' and joining the stellar cast of 'The Hack', with David Tennant, Toby Jones - definately a huge treat for the winter months. 

On the big screen Tom Rhys-Harries will be hard to miss in the next year, starring as the eponymous ‘Clayface.’

Tom, who made his West End debut in Jez Butterworths’s ‘Mojo’ with Ben Wishaw and Daniel Mays, and more recently was in The Seagull’ at the National Theatre with Emilia Clarke and Indira Varma, has been in films like ‘The Return’ with Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche, Guy Ritchie’s ‘The Gentleman’ and Apple TV’s ‘Suspicion’ with Uma Thurman.

His new role has been seen as a casting triumph: ‘We were blown away by this guy,’ said Batman Director Matt Reeves, and DC Universe co- creator James Gunn. Make your own minds up when he hits the cinemas in 2026. 

And of course we always like to celebrate our staff who make up such an important part of the RWCMD community - and often they're graduates as well;

Stage Management graduate and lecturer Elanor Higgins has been featured in the book 'Women in Entertainment Lighting', alongside fellow grads Cara Wood and Po Shin, celebrating women’s creativity and achievements in entertainment lighting.

She's also been interviewed for the leading industry magazine, LSI magazine:

Congratulations to our graduate, Fellow, Stage Combat tutor and fighting friend, Kevin McCurdy, who celebrated 35 years of making fights look fabulous this autumn.  

Kev was the first person of colour to be registered as an Equity Fight Director, and in 1992 he was the first person of colour to officially teach stage combat. 

And to round off his celebrations, this year he’s been named an Associate Artist with Shakespeare’s Globe.

To keep you going until that glitterball Christmas, acting grad Lewis Cope will be bringing the Pivot and Poise as he embraces his Sequin era and takes to the dance floor in this year’s Strictly Come Dancing. 

While we wait to see what Lewis’ finale dance will be - here are some photos of him in some of his final year productions at RWCMD.

And don't forget to follow us on our socials for up-to-date news on all things #RWCMDCreative: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok and X.