What We Do

Photo by Philip Vile

Attachments
Every year the Studio offers around 25 attachments to a variety of artists, including writers, directors, choreographers and designers. Attachments can last anything from two weeks to three months, and are designed to enable artists to be resident at the Studio, with a desk, a computer, a phone and all the benefits and familial connection that being part of the Studio team entails.

Courses & training
We run a number of regular courses for directors, and offer two bursaries a year to emerging directors – the Leverhulme Bursary for Emerging Theatre Directors (6 months) and the Bulldog Prinsep Bursary (6 months). From time to time we also run courses and other events for writers, directors and musicians. Occasionally we invite people to join us as interns or as part of secondments or training schemes.

Project development
The Studio’s principal activity is developing new work for the stage. Most of our workshops are on projects intended for the National Theatre’s main stages, but from time to time we invite independent artists or companies to try out new ideas or processes. All the work we do is about experiment and exploration, away from the pressure to produce a finished piece of work or end result.

Play readings
The Studio works closely with the National’s Literary Department in developing and supporting writers and new writing for the theatre. We support commissioned playwrights by offering readings, dramaturgical support and a place to write; invite writers to come on attachment, and also offer emerging writers the opportunity to hear their plays read, as part of a redrafting or script development process.

Staff Directors
The National employs a number of staff directors, whose responsibility it is to rehearse understudies and look after Lyttelton and Olivier productions once they have opened. Staff Directors are managed through the Studio by the Studio Associate, and we normally have around 6-8 young directors working with us as staff directors at any one time.


The National Theatre Studio is what it says on the tin: a studio, a workroom to create and cultivate work that isn’t yet ready to be judged. Some of my happiest times as a playwright have been spent there. A lot of what ends up in front of audiences at the National , and elsewhere, is developed at the Studio. The building and its people are a vital part of British theatre, responsible for helping to give voice to countless theatremakers.
Samuel Adamson