The MA Musical Theatre Company is designed for aspiring performers who want more than traditional training. This innovative course blends rigorous conservatoire practice with collaborative, student-led creation; preparing you not only to work in the musical theatre industry, but to shape its future.
You’ll train intensively each week in dance, voice, acting, and singing (including audition technique), forming a dedicated company that develops new work throughout the year. Working alongside students from our other MA programmes, you’ll explore fresh material, experiment with new ideas, and learn directly from leading directors, choreographers and practitioners currently working in the industry.
With multiple public performance opportunities built into the programme, you’ll graduate fully prepared for professional auditions, rehearsal room demands and the realities of life as a working actor. Your final project culminates in originating a brand-new role in a contemporary musical created by a top industry writer, giving you a standout professional credit before you even leave the course.
Step into a training environment where you perform, collaborate, and create at a professional level from day one.
Students receive weekly training across all core musical theatre disciplines, developing into confident, versatile performers ready to thrive in a highly competitive industry. With an emphasis on both technical excellence and individual artistic identity, the course blends focused one-to-one coaching in singing, audition technique and scene work with dynamic group sessions in dance, ensemble singing and acting.
Guided by expert tutors and inspired by the standards of leading industry professionals, you’ll build the skills, discipline and stagecraft expected of today’s musical theatre performers. Your training will be showcased through a series of public performances across the year, giving you real-world experience and visibility as you grow into a fully rounded, industry-ready artist.
Collaboration lies at the heart of our MA. You will work with students across our postgraduate programmes to test new ideas, gain real-time feedback, and explore your work in a variety of performance settings. Through structured R&D processes, you will develop, refine, and elevate your creative output while expanding your specialist skillset.
You will also join shared modules with the School of Drama, where you will generate new work in a collaborative, student-led environment. This cross-disciplinary approach encourages bold experimentation and helps you discover and refine your unique artistic voice. Throughout the year, your developing projects will be shared across multiple performance opportunities, giving you practical experience and exposure in live creative environments.
This programme is designed to connect you directly with the professional world. Workshops, masterclasses, and creative projects are led by established industry figures and supported by the region’s vibrant theatrical community.
You’ll benefit from Leeds Conservatoire’s strong partnerships with renowned organisations including Leeds Playhouse, Red Ladder, Opera North, and Slung Low, as well as our wide-reaching professional network spanning the West End, the wider UK industry, and international Musical Theatre makers.
These connections give you unparalleled access to current industry practice, creative mentorship, and potential career pathways; equipping you with the knowledge, experience, and professional visibility to launch your career as a Musical Theatre creator.
Our campuses include a brand-new building at Playhouse Square, housing state-of-the-art specialist performance facilities. With a panoramic view over the city landscape, this £60m development contains bespoke facilities for our theatre courses, including state-of-the-art dance and drama studio spaces and music ensemble rooms.
Leeds is also rich with creative and artistic spaces which are invaluable in offering training which is embedded in the City. As an artist who is interested in developing new work you may be able use those environments to inspire your work.
This module is designed to introduce students to the principles and techniques behind successful, collaborative arts practice. The module will develop the students’ knowledge and understanding of collaborative performance settings, expanding their knowledge of how work is made.
The module emphasises the ability to critically analyse personal and professional experiences, allowing students to engage in deep reflection. Through this module, students develop as reflective practitioners who understand the value of their artistry in a collaborative setting and proactively seek to develop their skills.
Through this module, students will study the process of successful collaborators, who work across disciplines to make original performance. They will work together in interdisciplinary teams, using their individual experiences and expertise to generate ideas, creative responses to given briefs and present ideas to audience for funding/development support.
In this module, students explore musical theatre as a storytelling form and cultural practice, grounding their work in historical context, critical theory, and close analysis of sung narrative. Using key works as case studies, they will examine how songs heighten storytelling and shape character, structure, and meaning.
Students engage with narrative theory and the dramaturgy of song, alongside close study of musical and lyrical construction, and the ways style and genre emerge from specific cultural moments. A core strand of the module traces musical theatre’s lineage through opera and operatic traditions, considering musical theatre as an offshoot of – and ongoing conversation with – that earlier art form.
Alongside this historical grounding, students are introduced to contemporary critical frameworks, applying these perspectives to questions of representation, voice, power, and authorship in musical storytelling.
In this module, students engage in intensive training across all core Musical Theatre disciplines including: ensemble singing, acting through song, acting, and dance; building the skills needed to thrive as versatile, professional performers.
You’ll develop the technical foundation expected in today’s industry, with focused dance training in the key styles and techniques required of contemporary musical theatre artists. Alongside this, you’ll explore your unique artistic identity, learning how to contribute powerfully within an ensemble while also crafting compelling characters of your own.
By combining technical rigour with creative individuality, this module equips you to excel in a competitive field and meet the demands of professional performance with confidence.
You’ll collaborate with fellow postgraduate artists from our MA Musical Direction and MA Directing programmes, working together just as you would in a professional creative team. Throughout the year, you'll rehearse and perform material from a range of established and published musicals, bringing each piece to life through a series of exciting short performances.
Writers and performance designers on the programme will craft bespoke, reduced adaptations specifically for your company, giving
you the chance to perform fresh interpretations of well-known works while developing your versatility and stagecraft.
This module leads to three studio-based and public performances, offering you multiple opportunities to showcase your talent, refine your collaborative practice, and gain the kind of real-world experience that prepares you for a professional career in musical theatre.
You’ll bring everything you’ve learned on the course to life by originating a role in a full-scale original musical. You will work from the original R&D through to initial production, performing in, and actively shaping a production ready for a professional audience.
Your work culminates in a public performance at the renowned Leeds Theatre Festival, where industry guests, employers and creative professionals are invited to experience your show. It’s a unique platform to showcase your voice, collaborate with peers, and launch yourself into the creative industries with a major credit already on your CV.
Throughout the course you will be assessed through a series of showings of your work, essays, reflective portfolios and academic reflective writing. Your final project will be assessed through performance in the Leeds Theatre Festival and a live ‘Viva’. Most of your assessments will be live performance based
Our Performing Arts students benefit from bespoke new facilities in our brand new Playhouse Square building.
Teaching will take place at our St Peters Square, Mabgate and Playhouse Square buildings as well as external teaching spaces where necessary.
We are confirming teaching spaces for 2026/27, but teaching spaces in 2025/26 also included Slung Low Theatre Company in Holbeck, Dance Studio Leeds and Yorkshire Dance.
Take a look at our custom-designed studios with panoramic views over Leeds city centre.
See Performing Arts FacilitiesGraduates of the Musical Theatre Company programme may go on to work in fields which may include:
Students will be taught by staff who are specialists within their field and include Directors, Musical Directors, creatives, entrepreneurs and academics who work professionally in the theatre industry. All teaching staff must apply for and be granted Recognised Teacher Status by the University of Hull.
Course Type: MA Postgraduate Degree
Duration: 1 year
Study Mode: Full Time
Start date: September
Validated by: University of Hull
Alternatively you can apply directly to Leeds Conservatoire.
OR
All students requiring a visa to study in the UK must meet the UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) department's English Language requirement of IELTS 6.0 with no sub-test less than 5.5
The process will be in 2 stages:
Find out more and read our full guidance on our Postgraduate Auditions page.
Full details on tuition fees are available on our Fees & Funding for Postgraduate study page.
Leeds Conservatoire offers the following discounts for taught on-site Masters courses:
For more funding options, visit our Postgraduate Scholarships and Bursaries page.
International Students
Details about tuition fees and scholarships for international students are available here.
View our Musical Theatre kit list for clothing and equipment requirements.
