Thanks to the emergence of theatre education in the UK in the 1960s, the performing arts moved beyond the boundaries of public entertainment. Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, a London drama education institution, played an important role in the development of the sphere. Learn more at londonski.
Tumblr
History of the Mountview Academy founding and development
In 1945, Peter Coxhead and Ralph Nossek were suspended from the Mountview officers’ theatre at the military base in Colombo, Sri Lanka. As a result, they created their own Mountview Theatre Club open to everybody in London. For the first time, its visitors had the opportunity to see a staging of Sutton Vane’s play Outward Bound. However, the stagings took place in the midst of unfinished building work, which the group tried to drown out with their own performance. Therefore, the actors kept the tradition of playing the Grand March from Tannhäuser at the beginning of performances for a long time.
In 1946, Peter Coxhead borrowed £2,300 to buy the lease on a derelict house in Crouch End. Eventually, the Mountview Theatre was opened on its premises in 1947. The audience of the first production of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest had to crowd around the tiny stage after a long wait for a weather-delayed start. Organising one performance a month until 1949, Peter Coxhead bought out the building from the landlords. For the next 25 years, the actors of the institution performed every two to three weeks.
As the first president of the reorganised Mountview Theatre School, George Norman introduced courses in acting and technical aspects of theatre activity in 1958. As a pioneer of the team, director Peter Coxhead managed the construction and opening of a second stage, the Judi Dench Theatre, in 1971. It had ten studios for actors, three for technicians and a wardrobe.
In 1996, Paul Clements, previously head of the drama department at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, became the new director of the institution. Peter Coxheads became its chairman and chief executive until 2000 when Mountview Academy of Theatre Art was finally established. He was awarded the OBE for services to the arts. The honorary stage actor passed away in 2004.
In 2007, Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts launched a scholarship competition with acting director Amir M. Korangy as a judge. In 2011, under the management of the new director Sue Robertson, the school was set to move to Hornsey Town Hall in Crouch End. However, the £19 million refurbishment project has never been realised. Eventually, the school moved to a new building in Peckham in 2018.
Hornsey Historical Society
Contribution and significance of Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts’ activity
Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts has been providing professional stage training to creative young people for decades. Its core curriculum offers courses in acting and musical theatre at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Among its notable alumni are Kelly Adams, Mina Anwar, Julie Atherton, Alecki Blythe, Lindsey Coulson, Josh Dallas, Tim Downie and many others. Some successful alumni even gave their names to awards, including the Diane Boddington Award, the Luke Morton Award, the Arif Hussein Award and others.
Skelly & Couch