A very warm welcome to everyone joining the GSA community for the 2026/27 academic year. For our new students especially, this is the beginning of a very exciting new chapter, a chance to learn, to think, create, collaborate and discover your own voice as an artist. I hope you will embrace every opportunity, take creative risks, make new connections and enjoy everything GSA has to offer.
As we look ahead to the year to come, it is also a wonderful opportunity to reflect on some of the highlights and achievements of the past year. It has been a particularly memorable one, with our 90th anniversary providing a chance to celebrate GSA's remarkable history and the generations of artists who have passed through our doors.
International opportunities have been a particular highlight. In June, 13 GSA students took part in the International Festival of Theatre in Sibiu, Romania, performing Macbeth and experiencing one of Europe's major international theatre festivals. Another group of 29 of our students travelled to Verona, Italy, for the World Shakespeare Congress, collaborating with students and practitioners from Italy and Serbia on a multilingual devised adaptation of Macbeth. We have also continued to strengthen GSA's international reach, with new audition opportunities in the USA and China, helping talented applicants worldwide access our training.
Our students and staff have also continued to explore new ways of working across disciplines. Dys is Me, a film created with GSA staff and students exploring the sensory experience of living with dyspraxia, won Best Mise-en-Scène at the BIFA-qualifying Brighton Rocks Film Festival. Also, GSA students' cast recording of High Button Shoes, in collaboration with the University of Surrey's Music and Media department, brought together performers, musicians, producers and sound engineers in a professional recording environment.
We collaborate in so many ways. Our staff were part of the Colloquium on Artistic Research in Performing Arts last August in Helsinki, the Association of British Theatre Technicians' Make a Difference conference in April, and the Theatre and Performance Research Association conference in September, as well as other things.
But while achievements and opportunities are important, what matters most is the community behind them - our students, staff, alumni and partners.
To our returning students, I hope this year brings new challenges, opportunities and discoveries. To those joining us for the first time, I hope you quickly feel at home and make the most of everything GSA has to offer.
And to everyone who contributes to the life of GSA - thank you. GSA's achievements are only possible because of the community that surrounds it, and I am enormously grateful for your support.
Professor Catherine McNamara
Head of Guildford School of Acting
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