Ben Sumner

National Teaching Fellow 2015 Ben Sumner trained as a stage manager and has worked in corporate events, dance, drama, musical theatre, opera, circus and television. He first taught Stage Management at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in 1987 before becoming Senior Lecturer in Technical Management at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. He remained there for 11 years developing new programmes in Stage Management and Stage Technology. In 2002 Ben became Programme Director at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in Perth, Australia where he took responsibility for the delivery of a broad range of programmes and oversaw the opening of extensive new theatre facilities. In 2006 he continued his production management work in circus and corporate events in the UK, Japan and Macau before returning to the Guildhall School in 2007.  Since his return the School has opened Milton Court, a new £89 million performing arts building with state of the art facilities and Ben has overseen a complete review of the Technical Theatre programme, which maintains an excellent reputation. Comments from the industry include: "I thought I would just take a moment to say that out in the industry Guildhall is considered the best technical theatre course in Europe. Keep up the good work." Tim Lutkin, Lighting Designer. "There once was a time when I thought drama schools taught students about theatre in such a general format that it wasn t until they started work that the real training began. But Guildhall is producing talented individuals that have trained with equipment most regional reps can only dream of." Johanna Town, Lighting Designer. Ben has focused particularly on developing collaborative strands across the School and beyond into the professional theatre industry. Later this year an MA in Collaborative Theatre Production and Design will open and a BA in Video Design for Live Performance is also being planned. Ben is currently developing a Centre for Digital Performance Technology which will be a hub where education meets industry on a sustained international level with an unrivalled portfolio of projects using specialist theatre and laboratory spaces in the School and the Barbican.