The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama has sustained its ranking as the UK’s top drama school in The Guardian University Guide 2019 published today, holding onto the top spot for the second year running, and the fourth year since 2013.
The National Conservatoire of Wales achieved the highest possible score in the ‘Satisfaction with Course’ subject table.
The College’s drama training at Wales’ National Conservatoire embraces courses in acting, stage management and performance design.
“This position in the Guardian League table once again validates the professionalism and dedication of the Royal Welsh College’s staff and the outstanding talent of the students,” says Director of Drama, Sean Crowley.
“Our Acting, Design for Performance and Stage Management students benefit from a fully immersive conservatoire training, which results in over 25 productions a year ranging from new writing and contemporary drama to Opera, Musical Theatre, Puppetry, exhibition and installation.
Our students are given an incredibly rich experience and excellent opportunities to showcase their work in Cardiff and London and New York.
Our relationship with the industry is critical to this success and we constantly strive to provide our students with the best possible opportunities for employment on graduation.”
This year, for the first time, the guide includes a new continuation measure, to reflect students’ chances of finishing their degrees.
The College provides a regular flow of talent into the arts and creative industries and has a strong track-record for the career success of its graduates, many of whom achieve success at the forefront of the industry only a few years after graduating.
Editors notes
The College has four acting graduates in the current BBC drama, A Very English Scandal: Dyfan Dwyfor, Paul Hilton, Bella Neale and Eve Myles, who has also just starred in the BBC’s Keeping Faith.
2016 graduate actor, Anthony Boyle, who just been interviewed in Time magazine, is nominated for a 2018 Tony Award for Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role. He’s already won an Olivier Award (among many others) for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Scorpius Malfoy in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. He’s recently appeared in BBC’s Come Home and Agatha Christie’s Ordeal by Innocence.
Graduate Josh Kroon has collaborated on many high profile projects with fellow graduate, lighting designer Tim Routledge, including Beyonce, Jay Z, Katy Perry and the Rolling Stones, as well as the X Factor and the Commonwealth Games.
Eric Kofi Abrefa, who graduated in 2012, is currently appearing in Julie at the National Theatre, along with fellow graduate Thalissa Teixeira (2014).
Recent graduate Sophie Melville is nominated for an NYC 2018 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance for her performance in the award-winning one-woman show Iphigenia in Splott, which transferred from the National Theatre to Broadway.
The College has just completed its fifth season of new writing, NEW18, with four newly-commissioned plays premiering in Cardiff and London this Spring. Next year The Gate Theatre will be joining regular partners Paines Plough, The Sherman Theatre and Royal Court to collaborate on this new writing festival.
The College is part of the Open Door project, offering free auditions to young people in London to improve diversity within the theatre industry. The College has made seven offers to acting students in the first year of this partnership.
The College’s Actor’s Showcase will return to New York for the third time this autumn.
Five recent RWCMD graduates were shortlisted for the biannual Linbury Prize, the UK’s most prestigious award for stage design. Graduate Fin Redshaw was one of the overall winners, as well as being the Old Vic 12 Designer for 2016-17. She has also worked as a design assistant to Rob Howell, Bob Crowley and Jonathan Fensom.
Fellow runner up Emily Bates is now designing for the Danish Royal Opera.
Graduate Sarah Hellicar was the Deputy Stage Manager on three time Olivier winning show, The Ferryman, both at the Royal Court and in the West End. Her successor as DSM is fellow alumni Olivia Roberts, with Hannah Gregory as Assistant Stage Manager. The production currently stars another graduate, Francis Mezza.
Sarah is now working on Long Day’s Journey Into Night, co produced by Bristol Old Vic and starring Jeremy Irons and Lesley Manville. It has just transferred from the West End to New York, before heading to Los Angeles in June. Alumni Laura Flowers is Company Stage Manager.
Briony Kirkman, who graduated last year, is at the Donmar working on The Way of the World as Assistant Stage Manager (alumni Christian Patterson is in the cast). When Briony finishes this run, she will be starting at the RSC in Stratford.
For more information: www.rwcmd.ac.uk
Contact: Helen Dunning, helen.dunning@rwcmd.ac.uk /02920 391422
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