Do you want to specialise in theatre, live events and film & television production?
Our extensive training combines core technical skills, sound and lighting design, video, construction etc. and the full range of stage management skills, whilst focusing on your chosen specialism. The training is tailored to your individual interests and career goals through the production work, while gaining a broad practical experience in a range of technical and production roles. We treat you as a professional from day one. You’ll be working as our resident stage management team to produce professional standard productions in College and on external placements.
‘As the world and the industry’s changing, so has our teaching: there’s been a steady change in areas such as digital and video production, automation, and at RWCMD we’re continually adapting our course to suit these changes, balancing old and new skills. Our graduates, out working in the industry, are at the cutting edge of these changes and come back to us and share this knowledge directly with the students.’
Ian Evans, Head of Stage Management, RWCMD
Why study at RWCMD?
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We offer immersive, hands-on practical and ‘fit for the future’ training. Our course covers a wide range of practical skills in stage management. You’ll train in every aspect a theatre practitioner needs, such as lighting, sound, video, construction before specialising in your chosen area.
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The skills you learn enable you to graduate as ‘industry ready’ and we have a 100% employment record.
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The College is a thriving arts centre and you’ll gain practical experience in a variety of production roles working backstage in professional theatre and performance environments such as music concerts, opera productions, exhibitions, in-house events and festivals, including BBC Young Musician of the Year.
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Our in-house theatre company, the Richard Burton Company, produces around 24 productions a year offering our students cross-course collaborative opportunities.
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Creating, designing and working on live productions, with mentors as support, you’ll take on increasing levels of responsibility in more senior roles across the Richard Burton Company.
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We offer some of the best and most varied facilities and equipment in the country, enabling you to experience working with different technical aspects of backstage work, including manual, counterweight and a fully automated flying and staging systems.
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You’ll have industry placement opportunities with prestigious high-profile companies gaining valuable networking opportunities as well as focused industry experience.
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Our high ratio of staff to students means you’ll have a lot of dedicated one-to-one training and mentoring.
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Training is delivered by industry professionals, for example, graduates Dominic Bilkey, Head of Sound and Vision at National Theatre, or international lighting designer Tim Routledge who has worked with everyone from Beyonce to Stormzy, as well as the London Olympics.
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Find out more about RWCMD
- Our thriving, multicultural institution welcomes 800 students from more than 40 countries. You’ll train side-by-side with other instrumentalists, actors, singers, composers and performance designers and will work with them on projects throughout the year.
- Collaboration forms a huge part of what we do, allowing you to immerse yourself in new experiences with a broad range of disciplines and skills from across the college. Our unique student-led company REPCo, encourages students to work together to be bold, imaginative and entrepreneurial.
- Our industry partnerships provide real-world, enhanced learning experiences with leading arts organisations and professional musicians, also offering you opportunities to build your future professional networks.
- RWCMD is a vibrant arts centre staging 500 performances a year (many of which are free) which are a combination of world-leading artists and student work, often side by side. Regular major events at RWCMD include BBC Young Musician of the Year, and BBC Cardiff Singer of the World and standalone events such as the World Harp Congress in July 2022.
- The College is the first UK conservatoire to achieve a gold standard level of quality assurance across Music, Drama and Under 18s in the recent international MusiQuE, Music Quality Enhancement review. Reviewers were particularly impressed with the College's approach to the individual student experience, multidisciplinary collaboration, and overall ambition, citing RWCMD as a shining example of best practice across European conservatoires, and reflecting the College's exceptional people and unique community.
- As the world’s only Steinway-exclusive conservatoire the College now has a world-leading fleet of pianos, and every acoustic piano at the College is a Steinway.
- We fundamentally believe in the power of music to transform and enrich society, developing skills in teaching, coaching and co-creating projects to create musicians of the future who will make an impact as performers, teachers and enablers within the broader community. Fundamental questions - ‘How can we shape the industry of the future’, ‘How can we use art to make a difference’ - help us to produce musicians who are truly relevant to a 21st Century world.
- You’ll practice, study and perform in a beautiful, inspiring setting, bordering Bute Park, one of the largest green spaces in the city. We have a chamber music hall with extraordinary acoustics, a glass-lined foyer and performance space, the Richard Burton Theatre, as well as state-of-the-art studios and rehearsal spaces.
- Our campus is right in the centre of Cardiff, the UK’s first Music City, and the thriving, compact capital of Wales, which is only two hours by train to central London.
- Cardiff was named as the most cost-effective city in the UK for students, according to the NatWest Student Living Index 2022.
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