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The Central School of Speech and Drama is a United Kingdom government-funded university college in London. It joined the University of London in 2005.

CSSD was founded in 1906 by Elsie Fogerty to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for young actors and other students. During the war, it was based at "The Hall"—the Royal Albert Hall—although it moved during the war to Exeter. Nowadays, the campus is centred around the Embassy Theatre in Swiss Cottage in North London, and, as a government-funded Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning benefits from state-of-the-art facilities.

Courses are provided in acting, costume design and construction, design for the stage, directing, applied theatre & education, drama and movement therapy, dramaturgy, lighting design and production, media and drama education, musical theatre, performance arts, prop-making, puppetry, scenic art, scenic construction, scenography, set design, theatre sound, stage management, technical and production management and writing.

The School is the largest specialist centre for training and study in drama, theatre and the performance arts in Europe, with over 1000 registered students and a faculty of 50 specialist academic staff across three Schools (of Undergraduate Studies, Postgraduate Studies and Community and Professional Development.) While retaining the conservatoire ethos of its world-famous actor training programme and its industry-focused specialist technical theatre training, it has also recently developed its research profile, and recruited its own doctoral students. In 2005, the School became a largely-independent college of the federal University of London and was designated the Centre for Excellence in Training for Theatre by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).

Honorary Fellows include Declan Donnellan, Richard Schechner, Jude Kelly, Ronald Harwood and Catherine Tate.

Famous past students include:

• Official Website

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