Program Overview
Complete up to 16 academic credits with a combination of hands-on pre-professional training at Shakespeare’s Globe and/or in London’s West End, and theatre courses at the award-winning University of Roehampton. Live in a single room with ensuite bathroom in an on-campus house where you will have the chance to meet students from all over the world. Join your theatre classmates and Performing Arts Abroad’s site director on trips to Bath to see the famous Fashion Museum and Roman baths, and to Stratford-Upon-Avon to visit Shakespeare’s birthplace, grave, and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Call London home for four months of exploring the performing arts and local theatre industry in a semester abroad program unlike any other.
There are three distinct tracks for this theatre semester in London (outlined below), and the program offers the flexibility to pursue multiple options. For example, many students decide to enroll in both the West End musical theatre training course AND the Performing Shakespeare course at Shakespeare’s Globe.
Musical theatre – Train with London theatre professionals in iconic West End venues, with academic credit issued by Nazareth College in Rochester, New York. These are the same studios where West End musicals hold auditions and rehearse productions. Masterclasses and workshops include acting, singing, stage combat, puppetry, jazz, hip hop, ballet, mock auditions with casting directors, question and answer sessions with notable directors, and more. You will workshop musicals such as Wicked, Les Miserables, Waitress, Hairspray, Mama Mia, Mary Poppins, Matilda, and more with current cast members who you will see on stage doing the same choreography and staging you have been learning together in the classes. For a detailed course description and outline, go here.
Supplement your time in the studio with an exploratory Introduction to the London Stage course taught by the distinguished professors of Roehampton University where you will see at least one theatrical production each week, ranging from the large West End theatres to the National Theatre to intimate pub theatres. You will choose a third and final course from an enticing list of options, which you can explore in more detail on the Course Listing section of this page (note that courses are available in a variety of other fields for those students needing to fulfill core requirements in disciplines such as Anthropology, Business, English, History, Psychology, and more. Contact us for more information).
Acting – Study with actors and directors at Shakespeare’s Globe and perform in final scenes on the stage of the Globe itself, with academic credit issued by Nazareth College in Rochester, New York. Attend masterclasses in movement, voice and speech, stage combat, Elizabethan dress, textual analysis, performance practice, and more. Explore every inch of the Globe Theatre in a unique “Heaven to Hell” private tour beginning in the rafters far above the stage and ending underneath the stage peering up through the Elizabethan-era trapdoor.
Supplement your time at Shakespeare’s Globe with an Introduction to the London Stage course taught by the distinguished professors of Roehampton University where you will see theatrical productions every week, ranging from the National Theatre to large West End theatres to intimate pub theatres. You will choose a third and final course from an exciting list of options, which you can explore in more detail on the Course Listing section of this page (note that courses are available in a variety of other fields for those students needing to fulfill core requirements in disciplines such as Anthropology, Business, English, History, Psychology, and more. Contact us for more information).
Technical Theatre and Theatre Studies – Study technical theatre, dramatic theory, performance studies, theatre history, and more in the city where modern theatre began. You’ll take diverse courses from prominent faculty at the University of Roehampton, one of London’s most prestigious universities. Acquire international theatre knowledge and skills, and become immersed in the culture and surroundings that inspired Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Choose three courses from a carefully curated list of options on the Course Listing section of this page (note that courses are available in a variety of other fields for those students needing to fulfill core requirements in disciplines such as Anthropology, Business, English, History, Psychology, and more. Contact us for more information).
My semester at Roehampton was a life-changing experience. With the incredible help of PAA, I was able to spend five indescribable months studying theatre in London. I met people from all over the world, saw game-changing theatre all over the city, and learned so much not only about theatre, but also myself.
Casie Winshell