Dr Nicholas Holden

Nick joined LAMDA as Head of Academic Affairs and Research in January 2024, having previously been Deputy Head of the School of Stage and Screen at the University of Greenwich. Prior to this Nick had held positions at the University of Lincoln, UK, and the University of Nottingham, UK, and, in 2022, was the Thomas P. Johnson Distinguished Fellow in English and Drama at Rollins College, USA. Following a career as an actor and dancer in theatre and film, Nick has worked in Higher Education for over 10 years but remains active in the industry as a script reader and producer, and as an associate at the Royal Court Theatre, where he works on the Living Archive Project, which supports the development of the theatre’s newly created digital archive. At LAMDA Nick teaches classes on the Foundation and MA Classical Acting degrees, and coordinates the MFA Classical Acting and MFA Musical Theatre programmes.

Nick has research specialisms in playwriting studies, musical theatre, masculinity, and the history of the Royal Court Theatre, specifically its work with young people. He is co-founder and co-convenor of the Contemporary Playwriting Network and co-editor of the book series Playwriting and the Contemporary: Critical Collaborations (Liverpool University Press). His publications include Masculinities in Musical Theatre (Forthcoming, Bloomsbury, 2025), Beautiful Doom: The Work of Dennis Kelly on Stage and Screen (co-edited with Jacqueline Bolton, Manchester University Press, 2024), a special issue of Comparative Drama on London’s Theatre (co-edited with Harry Derbyshire and Mark O’Thomas, 2022), and articles and book chapters on new play development, musical theatre on screen, and arts and cultural policy from the 1990s to the present day. Nicholas is currently the co-director of the Comparative Drama Conference, with Mark O’Thomas (LAMDA), Baron Kelly, and Ann Shanahan (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA), and the Contemporary Playwriting Conference, and co-convenor of the Theatre and Performance Histories Working Group at the Theatre and Performance Research Association (TaPRA).