The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a music and drama school located in the City of London, England. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz along with drama and production arts. The school has students from over seventy countries. It was ranked first in both the Guardian's 2022 League Table for Music and the Complete University Guide's 2023 Arts, Drama and Music league table. It is also ranked the fifth university in the world for performing arts in the 2024 QS World University Rankings.
Joan Maud Littlewood was an English theatre director who trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and is best known for her work in developing the Theatre Workshop. She has been called "The Mother of Modern Theatre". Her production of Oh, What a Lovely War! in 1963 was one of her more influential pieces.
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, also known by its abbreviation RADA, is a drama school in London, England, which provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in Bloomsbury, Central London, close to the Senate House complex of the University of London, and is a founding member of the Federation of Drama Schools.
The University of Essex is a public research university in Essex, England. Established by royal charter in 1965, it is one of the original plate glass universities. The university comprises three campuses in the county, in Southend-on-Sea and Loughton with its primary campus in Wivenhoe Park, Colchester.
Theatre Workshop is a theatre group whose long-serving director was Joan Littlewood. Many actors of the 1950s and 1960s received their training and first exposure with the company, many of its productions were transferred to theatres in the West End, and some, such as Oh, What a Lovely War! and A Taste of Honey, were made into films.
The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, commonly shortened to Central, is a drama school founded by Elsie Fogerty in 1906, as the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art, to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for young actors and other students. It became a constituent college of the University of London in 2005 and is a member of Conservatoires UK and the Federation of Drama Schools.
The Theatre Royal Stratford East is a 460 seat Victorian producing theatre in Stratford in the London Borough of Newham. Since 1953, it has been the home of the Theatre Workshop company, famously associated with director Joan Littlewood, whose statue is outside the theatre.
The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) is a drama school located in Hammersmith, London. It is the oldest specialist drama school in the British Isles and a founding member of the Federation of Drama Schools. The institution is ranked 1st in the UK in the "Drama and Dance" category by The Guardian University Guide rankings for 2025 with a perfect score of 100. It is also ranked 6th in the world by The Hollywood Reporter's annual list of the 25 top drama schools and is currently rated as the top UK drama school for student satisfaction according to the 2024 National Student Survey.
Queen Margaret University Edinburgh is a university founded in 1875 and is located wholly within the county of East Lothian on the outskirts of Musselburgh. It is named after the Scottish Queen Saint Margaret (1045–1093).
Morley College is a specialist adult education and further education college in London, England. The college has three main campuses, one in Waterloo on the South Bank, and two in West London namely in North Kensington and in Chelsea, the latter two joining following a merger with Kensington and Chelsea College in 2020. There are also smaller centres part of the college elsewhere. Morley College is also a registered charity under English law. It was originally founded in the 1880s and has a student population of 11,000 adult students. It offers courses in a wide variety of fields, including art and design, fashion, languages, drama, dance, music, health and humanities.
The University of Bedfordshire is a public research university with campuses in Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, England. The University has roots in further and higher education from 1882: it gained university status in 1993 as the University of Luton. The University changed its name to the University of Bedfordshire in 2006, following the merger of the University of Luton with the Bedford campus of De Montfort University.
Rose Bruford College is a higher education institution in the Greater London borough of Bexley. Bruford has degree programmes in acting, actor musicianship, directing, theatre arts and various disciplines of stagecraft.
John Glynn Edwards was a British television and cinema character actor, who came to national prominence for his portrayal of the barman Dave Harris in the 1970s–1990s British television comedy-drama Minder.
Arts Educational Schools, or ArtsEd, is an independent performing arts school in Chiswick, West London, England.
Drama Centre London was a British drama school in King's Cross, London, where it moved in 2011 after a major reshaping of the University of the Arts London. It was part of Central Saint Martins, a constituent college of the university. Following a review in 2020, the school closed with the graduation of its final students in 2022.
Murray Melvin was an English actor. He was best known for his acting work with Joan Littlewood, Ken Russell and Stanley Kubrick. He was the author of two books: The Art of Theatre Workshop (2006) and The Theatre Royal, A History of the Building (2009).
John Bury OBE was a British set, costume and lighting designer who worked for theatres in London, the rest of the UK, and Broadway and international opera.
Reece Ritchie is an English actor. He is known for his film roles, such as Moha in 10,000 BC (2008), Bis in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010), and Iolaus in Hercules (2014). He starred as Jay in the British drama television series White Heat (2012). He played Zed in the American fantasy-adventure television series The Outpost (2019–2021) and stars as Lt. Spencer Lane in the American sci-fi television series The Ark (2023).
Caroline Webster is an English former actress who is now a freelance film director and headshot photographer. During her acting career, she appeared as Jane Scott in BBC One's popular hospital drama Casualty for four series.
Philip David Hedley, CBE was a British theatre director.
