The Arden School of Theatre, also known as The Arden, is a Drama school and is part of the Performing Arts faculty at UCEN Manchester located in Manchester, England. The Arden School of Theatre was founded jointly by the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester and South Manchester College in 1991 by the Senior Curriculum Manager Robert S Ely, to provide vocational degree level theatrical education in the North of England, one of the first to provide theatrical degrees in the United Kingdom. The School wanted to expand to provide other theatrical professions, but today only provides courses for actors and musical theatre performers. The Arden name came from the original City College Arden Campus where the drama school was based between 1991 and 2004, in Northenden, South Manchester. It has never been a member of the Conference of Drama Schools. The school now provides four BA programmes, validated by Sheffield Hallam University in Acting for Live and Recorded Media, Dance and Performance, Musical Theatre, and Theatre and Performance. The College is a founder member of the National Skills Academy for Creative & Cultural Skills, and has a wide range of relationships locally with the Contact Theatre and the Royal Exchange theatre. Graduates Showcases are presented each year both in the region and in London with a number of casting agents for Acting, Dance, and Musical Theatre. Theatre and Performance present the annual unTaPped festival each year in May. In 2006, The Arden moved into new premises located over three floors at Universal Square, a development by Frogmore Northern who had renovated the former Great Universal Stores headquarters offices. In September 2010 The Arden moved into Nicholls House, Ardwick, Manchester; a renovated Victorian building with additional rehearsal space, production rooms and voice and singing rooms. The programmes utilise a dedicated theatre space at The Waterside Theatre, attached to the Manchester CollegeShena Simon Campus, Whitworth Street in central Manchester. Collaboration with other College degree programmes allows access to other specialist facilities including music recording studios and radio studio and film and television production equipment. The Arden teaching faculty boasts a wealth of industry experience with Theatre professionals such as West End Musical Director Robert Purvis and broadway leading man and director Tim Flavin, TV and Screen Actors Marie Critchley, and Paul Broughton, dancers Belinda Grantham and Tomas Simon, as well as performance makers Wayne Steven Jackson and Graham Hicks.
