Manchester School of Theatre

MA/MFA Performance is an exciting taught masters programme that offers a practical, versatile and interdisciplinary approach to performance-making and training. The programme provides you with an advanced and practical understanding of current performance practices, drawing on a broad range of artistic and theoretical influences. The development of new creative practice is at the core of the programme, as well as how this work might be developed and profiled in a professional context. Furthermore, MA/MFA Performance offers you the chance to specialise in either of the distinctive areas of laboratory theatre or contemporary performance. The experience of these options is fed through a further process of critical and professional contextualisation, before you embark on the creation of your own major project as the culmination of the degree. Tomorrow we have a Postgraduate Open Day @manmetuni . You can book on by visiting the link in our bio or by searching MMU MA/MFA Performance PGT Open Day. Come and find out more! And if you can't make this one, then don't worry, there is another one on Saturday 7th February!

And the curtain falls... Sharing some images from our amazing BA Drama & Contemporary Performance groups showing work in Elevator Festival this week. They did a great job and it was brilliant to mentor them! Wish them all well on their journey. Thanks to our @performance_mst students @oliviarbanc @evelynpratttheatrelab for documenting & @performance_team_go for support. @mst_dcp @mcrschtheatre @andreamacielgarcia

It has been great to introduce our MA/MFA Performance students to some of our industry contacts during their Professional Practices module this year. We have met with Helen Goalen (@rashdashtheatre ), @crissybythesea (@big_tellyni ), Inga Hirst & Molly Taylor (Royal Exchange), @jacwdale & @emmylahouel (@contactmcr ) and @beagley.sam (@homemcr ). Thanks to them and our other guest speakers including @tamsin.drury (@warnmcr ) and Lisa Law (@manmetcareers ).This week for our final session we will have talks from @neilkmac (@futureflaresfest ) & @rachaelisstoked (@mcrschart ). The module aims to prepare our MA/MFA students for their Major Project and consider future trajectories for their professional practices.

Great to take our MA/MFA Performance students on a tour of Royal Exchange Theatre today where we met Inga Hirst (Director of Engagement) and Molly Taylor (Creative Exchange Manager). We were shown the theatre, the costume department and the archives in the basement and found out more about the theatre and its history in its 50th anniversary. Look forward to hosting our conference on 'Performing Archives' there on 23-24 June. CfP Deadline tomorrow. Links in bio. @rxtheatre @mcrschtheatre @english_manmetuni

STUDENT INTERNSHIP 2026- PERFORMANCE RESEARCH AND EVENTS INTERN Are you interested in performance and/or archives? Would you like to be involved in a dynamic research environment and to take a key role in planning its research activity? The Performance Research Group (PRG), based in the School of English, is currently planning a conference at the Royal Exchange Theatre on 23-24 June 2026 on ‘Performing Archives ‘and will need administrative and marketing support. The intern will support the group’s leadership team in planning the conference (June) as well as supporting its profile-raising activity related to the conference. This will be an exciting role for someone who is creative, dynamic and interested in the arts and how researchers work together. Follow the link in our bio to apply 🔗

CFP deadline 24 April!! PRG are inviting contributions for the upcoming conference and sharing event ‘Between Then and Now: Performing Archives’ which will take place at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre on 23-24 June 2026. The conference seeks to interrogate the role of the archive in shaping, capturing, echoing, and contextualising performance, and to bring this area of thinking and practice into productive dialogue. The link to the call for papers is in our bio 🔗

PRG is delighted to announce a new PHD student, Alexis Maxwell! Alexis has been recruited through the NWCDTP Collaborative Doctoral Award scheme and began their studies in January 2026. Alexis is an interdisciplinary artist working with the Reckless Sleepers archive. Their doctoral research will develop taxonomical scores drawn from the company’s rehearsal processes, bringing archival material and embodied knowledge into dialogue. The project explores how performance histories can be reorganised and reactivated in the present. Alexis’s supervisory team are members of the Performance Research Group, Rachel Rimmer-Piekarczyk and Kevin Egan, and Mole Wetherell who is the Artistic Director of Reckless Sleepers, the industry partner for this CDA. For more information about Alexis and our other PHD students, visit our website. Link in bio 🔗

📢 We are pleased to announce that we have a new paid student internship available to support our conference at Royal Exchange Theatre in June - From Then to Now: Performing Archives. ADVERT: Are you interested in performance and/or archives? Would you like to be involved in a dynamic research environment and to take a key role in planning its research activity? The Performance Research Group (PRG), based in the School of English, is currently planning a conference at the Royal Exchange Theatre on 23-24 June 2026 on ‘Performing Archives‘ and will need administrative and marketing support. The intern will support the group’s leadership team in planning the conference (June) as well as supporting its profile-raising activity related to the conference. This will be an exciting role for someone who is creative, dynamic and interested in the arts and how researchers work together. Please note this opportunity is open to current students. Link in bio. Dates: 25 May 2026 - 17 July 2026 Hours per week: 10 Deadline: 21 April 2026

It was great to take our MA/MFA Performance students to Contact Theatre @contactmcr , where we hosted PRG Presents last summer !! Thank you to Jack Dale-Dowd @jacwdale and Emmy Lahouel @emmylahouel for the talk/tour of the venue !

Call for Contributions !! The Performance Research Group of Manchester School of Theatre, Manchester Metropolitan University, is hosting a conference, Between Then and Now: Performing Archives, at The Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, 23-24 June 2026 We invite contributions to this conference which seeks to interrogate the role of the archive in shaping, capturing, echoing, and contextualising performance, and to bring this area of thinking and practice into productive dialogue. Our host, the Royal Exchange @rxtheatre is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and the conference speaks to the sector in terms of how archives serve as celebration, commemoration, preservation and legacy. Link to the CFP is in our bio!

Last week our Visiting Professor, @matthew.spangler.1 from @sjsu_theatre , met our @mcrschtheatre MA/MFA Performance students for a talk about his practice as a playwright and academic exploring migration as part of Go Global Week @english_manmetuni . We then went to @homemcr for a tour and artist talk about performance opportunities with @beagley.sam , a recent graduate of our MA Performance course. Thanks to Matthew & Sam for their creative input. See image 2 for Sam's arrival mid-photo! #GoGlobal

Exciting news from Manchester School of Theatre! From today, all Manchester School of Theatre content is moving to our new official home: @mcrschtheatre Follow the new account to keep up with student work, alumni news, production announcements, research, staff activity and more from across the whole of MST! Thank you so much for supporting this account up until now. We would love you to continue the journey with us at @mcrschtheatre See you there! This account will not be deleted! We just will not be posting. So do stay following if you fancy looking back on previous posts or performances. All at Manchester School of Theatre x