Hope Mill Theatre to launch HOPE MILL THEATRE ARTS with a BA Hons degree in Musical Theatre Performance
Phil Tragen
The multi award-winning theatre known for its ambitious musical productions is proud to announce the launch of Hope Mill Theatre Arts, which will offer a BA Honours degree in Musical Theatre Performance. The expansion comes as they celebrate their milestone 10th Anniversary year.
Hope Mill Theatre Arts will be one of the first courses of its kind operated by a producing theatre offering high quality musical theatre training at degree level. Students will be training in a busy and active producing theatre, surrounded by industry professionals and creatives with first-hand experience of the musical profession. Hope Mill Theatre have expanded their current space to allow for the new move, taking on the rest of the lower ground floor of Hope Mill, the Grade II listed mill that is currently home to their theatre space.
Hope Mill Theatre Arts has been in development for the past 4 years and has just secured its validation from Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds. The first intake for the course is set for September 2026, with around 30 students per year, allowing for a more focused and nurturing learning experience as well as more contact time for students.
Darren Carr, Vice Principal & Director of Higher Education of Northern School of Contemporary Dance said:
“I am thrilled to announce a transformative partnership between Hope Mill Theatre Arts and Northern School of Contemporary Dance (the awarding body), marking a bold step in reimagining musical theatre training in the UK. Rooted in shared values of creativity, community, and inclusion, this collaboration brings together NSCD’s vocational, academic excellence and sector-leading student support with Hope Mill’s award-winning creative vision and vibrant industry connections. Together, we are launching the BA (Hons) Musical Theatre Performance programme for 2026 entry, a course that champions versatility, innovation, and professional readiness scaffolded through its design and delivery. This partnership embodies NSCD’s strategic mission to connect, nurture talent, and inspire change.
In uniting with award winning Hope Mill Theatre, a producing house known for opening doors to underrepresented voices, we are creating a space where students not only learn, they thrive. With rigorous technical instruction across singing, acting, and dance, and real-world experience embedded through performance projects and industry showcases, students will graduate not only as skilled performers but as collaborative, forward-thinking artists.
At its heart, this programme is a celebration of what can be achieved when education and industry co-create, preparing the next generation to shape the future of musical theatre with confidence, craft, and compassion. We’re not just preparing students for the stage—we’re creating space for new stories to be told.”
From William Whelton, founder and CEO of Hope Mill Theatre and Principal of Hope Mill Theatre Arts said:
“For the past 4 years Hope Mill Theatre have been exploring expansion into higher education, initially in Musical Theatre. Having grown up in a farming community I am all too familiar with the need to diversify, and arts training is an area most passionate to me. For many years, exceptional arts training, specifically in Musical Theatre has been very London focused. Having relocated myself to train, it can at times be a barrier for many and make training inaccessible. Manchester and the North has always been a beacon of culture and through our own productions we have experienced the gap in training provisions in the region. Over the past 10 years Hope Mill Theatre has gained a reputation for producing some of the most exciting musicals in the UK and we want to now go back to the root of the industry that we love so passionately and offer opportunities to young people wanting to pursue careers in Musical Theatre. The curtain has been rising on shows and now it will rise on the performers of the future. NSCD is an organisation we have admired from afar, not only as a fellow regional champion of arts excellence but in its fresh and exciting approach to dance training. This partnership will see Hope Mill Theatre Arts offer a fresh and truly unique training opportunity within Manchester and the North of England and we can’t wait to welcome our first cohort of students. We create art, we create artists.
Hope Mill Theatre will continue to receive and produce shows at our venue, with productions such as Little Shop of Horrors already announced for late 2026, but the programme of work in our current space will become more reduced as HMTA grows. It is still our ambitions to expand into a larger building one day and we have been working closely with Manchester City Council on this. In the meantime, Hope Mill Theatre productions will continue to be produced outside of the venue in other spaces across the city, and recently we announced a yearly collaboration with Lowry theatre, starting with Disney’s High School Musical next summer. I am excited about what the future can be for Hope Mill Theatre as we make this exciting leap.”
Hope Mill Theatre is an award-winning venue, known for its ambitious in-house productions including Hair - the Musical (London, UK Tour); the UK premiere of Yank! (Charing Cross Theatre, London); the European premiere of Little Women, Spring Awakening, Pippin (Southwark Playhouse, London); Aspects of Love (Southwark Playhouse); Rags (The Park Theatre); Mame (starring Tracie Bennett); Jonathan Harvey’s Hushabye Mountain, The Wiz, Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella (Hope Mill Theatre); LIZZIE (UK Tour & Southwark Playhouse); World Premiere of To Wong Foo: The Musical, based on the Hollywood movie (Hope Mill Theatre); The Gap starring Denise Welch and Matthew Kelly (Hope Mill Theatre); GYPSY! (Starring Jodie Prenger) and Glorious! (Starring Wendi Peters). Their upcoming productions include the regional premiere of Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein, a special fundraising concert of Acorn Antiques The Musical and the UK premiere of Disney’s High School Musical.
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