Established | 1963 |
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Parent institution
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Central Saint Martins (University of the Arts London) |
Location | London, England, United Kingdom |
Affiliations | Drama UK |
Website | arts |
Drama Centre London (often abbreviated as Drama Centre) is a British drama school in King's Cross, London, where it recently moved after a major reshaping of the university. The school is part of Central Saint Martins, a constituent college of the University of the Arts London and is a member of Drama UK. The BA (Hons) and MA Acting courses, offered by the school, are accredited by Drama UK.
Drama Centre London was founded in 1963 by a breakaway group of teachers and students from the Central School of Speech and Drama, led by John Blatchley, Yat Malmgren and Christopher Fettes. The school was located originally on Prince of Wales Road, Chalk Farm, but moved first to Back Hill, Clerkenwell in 2004, then to its current site at King's Cross in 2011. Since 1999, it has operated as an integral school of Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design, offering degree programmes in acting, directing and screenwriting.
A principal aim in the founding of the school was to bring some of the major developments in American and European theatre to the training of British and international actors. Its approach articulates Stanislavski's system, with the movement work of Rudolf Laban and the character typology of Carl Jung to produce a 'movement psychology' for the analysis and development of characters. The school's work also draws on the English tradition, particularly that of Joan Littlewood and Theatre Workshop. These approaches are taught as part of the Western theatrical tradition that began with the Greeks, on which the school places great emphasis. When the school was founded, it was the only drama school in the country to have an acting class, and is considered to be the first 'Method' drama school in Britain.