St Mary’s University is pioneering an ‘optionality’ approach to arts training
The London university is empowering students to navigate a fast-changing industry…
St Mary’s University School of Liberal and Creative Arts in Twickenham is leading the way this year when it comes to holistic training, having embraced what it terms an “optionality approach”.
In a nutshell, it means that students studying across its Creative Arts programmes can opt to take modules across three subjects, BA Acting, BA Creative Production and BA Film-making. So, an actor could study stage management or a film-maker may want to study screen acting and vice versa.
The aim, explains Kim Salmons, head of the school, is to develop “real-world skills”.
“We wanted to facilitate students’ entrepreneurialism,” she says. “People who succeed typically have a range of skills they can take into the industry. We are also aiming to help students build up a network across the creative arts to help them be industry ready when they graduate.”
This is the first academic year that students have had this opportunity to cross-pollinate, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive.
“The students are loving it,” says Mark Street, subject lead of Creative Arts. “Actors are asking about film-making, stage management, design – the take-up has been huge. And likewise, students on those courses are getting an opportunity to act, write or direct.”
The impact of social media on casting is another reason this broadening of the skill set is so vital. As Street says, a lot of students are already generating their own material online, but now St Mary’s is “teaching them the skills to create their own content and to tell their own stories in today’s competitive market”.
‘The students are loving it. Actors are asking about film-making, stage management, design. And likewise, students on those courses are getting an opportunity to act, write or direct.’ – Mark Street, subject lead of Creative Arts
St Mary’s prides itself on offering practical drama training rooted within a university setting.
Salmons lays out the university’s four key values: respect, excellence, generosity of spirit and inclusivity. “We instil these in everything we do,” she says. “Our mission is to develop the whole student, so the learning process isn’t just about giving them the methodology of acting or film-making, it’s about how they go out and make that into something useful for both themselves and wider society.”
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To ease the transition into self-sufficiency after graduation, St Mary’s has been supporting students to stage their own productions. This year saw the inaugural SCALA Festival of Creativity, a module inviting final-year students from across the creative arts programmes to showcase their work at local venues (it will return next spring). The facilities at the university are second to none, with the campus boasting a main theatre, three studios, plus rehearsal spaces, recording studios and creative suites. The teaching staff are joined every year by a range of freelance coaches and directors who enrich the learning experience, and help prepare students for a showcase in the West End. And the support even continues after graduation, with alumni invited back to stage their own productions with no hire fee.
But what really sets St Mary’s apart, says Street, is its focus on tangible, real-world experience, putting the power back into students’ hands. “Ultimately, we want to create self-empowered artists, so the industry comes to them, rather than the other way around. We are supplying our students with the tools to get out there and create.”
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