Why choose this course

As a musical theatre performer, you will be passionate and creative, and able to form a deep connection with your story, character and audience.

Guildford School of Acting (GSA) is one of the most highly regarded musical theatre schools in the world, and our two-year MFA in Musical Theatre will provide you with the very best conservatoire training in a top UK university environment.

Building on our international reputation in musical theatre, this is the only two-year postgraduate programme in Europe is unique in the way it combines training to enhance your skills with professional opportunities and chances to launch your career.

You will be taught by academics who have extensive industry links and who bring their connections into the classroom. Our staff are active in the performing arts industry and balance their performing commitments with their teaching duties.

Successful entry onto GSA’s MFA Musical Theatre means you’ll be part of a carefully selected and committed ensemble of performers-in-training, equipped with the self-discipline and motivation to master new skills and refine existing capabilities.

What you will study

On our MFA Musical Theatre, you’ll gain a broad range of musical theatre knowledge and skills while performing in a variety of outstanding productions.

Supported by first-class teaching, your learning will involve a working knowledge of historical, critical and theoretical content, and the creation of performances that will be presented to agents and professionals for maximum industry exposure.

You will take skills classes in acting, singing and dancing, and will have professional development sessions where you will learn how the industry works and how you fit within it. Rehearsal projects of excerpts of musicals will integrate your skills and your first year culminates in a public performance with your peers.

In the second year you will undertake a Pedagogies module and will appear in a joint public performance with the MA actors before a production of a new musical. The programme culminates in a sustained independent project.

Careers and graduate prospects

We offer careers information, advice and guidance to all students whilst studying with us, which is extended to our alumni for three years after leaving the University.

GSA has an excellent reputation as a conservatoire, and graduates are sought for a variety of roles in the performing arts, as performers, creatives and as production staff. We consistently nurture students to become highly employable and resilient graduates, with a sophisticated toolkit of transferable skills, and the Graduate Outcomes 2023, HESA showed that 97 per cent of our Guildford School of Acting postgraduate students go on to employment or further study.