Stephen Langston

Dr Langston is an experienced practitioner and lecturer in theatrical performance with speciality subjects in musical theatre, technical theatre and musical direction. He is currently module coordinator for New Performance Realisation, Networking and Promotion and Commercial Production where he utilises his profession skills to take the students on a jourmey of practice and performance in real life situations. Recently he and his students contributed to the promotional activities of StarZ Outlander series 6, where they sang Dr Langston's arrangement of the theme tune for the series in a specially produced flash mob and on the red carpet of the Scottish premier (now viewed by over 120,000 people). Future projects include working with John Sinclair (Black Sabbath, Keyboards) and Lin Anderson (Scottish Author) in a workshop of their new musical Voice of a Generation with the UWS students.

Dr Langston is a member of the School Board for Business and Creative Industries, Co-chair of the School Plagerism Panel and external examiner to the London College of Music (university of the West of London). He is also Collaborative Partner for the Arts and Media Division where he works with College Partners to maintain quality and communication on external degree programmes. As programme leader for performance he manages the activities of the students, course administration, induction, timetabling, quality, interviews, staff apointments and budgets. He is also the producer of the university theatre production company (RAFT) which produces allof the students performances.

Dr Langston constribures on a regular basis to the Conversation newspaper where he has recently had four articles published with a combined readership of over 65,000. He has  recently been apointed as the go to resident expert for Scottish Television in musical and contemporary theatre and will be appearing as a regular contributor in 2022/23.

He is an experienced composer of choral, orchestral and musical theatre repertoires with CD publications on the electric honey label of Wallace the musical and Sheherezade the Musical.

He has written the following musicals:

• Wallace - RSAMD - 2000
• Sheherezade - RSAMD - 2002, 2003, 2004
• Faeries - East Kilbride Theatre, Gilmorehill Theatre - 2005 - Scottish tour - 2006 - Edinburgh Festival - 2007
• The Green Door - Ayr Gaiety Theatre - 2015

- and currently composing A Scottish Fantasia for choir and orchestra with a performance in Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall in June 2023.

Dr Langston recently completed a major piece of research concerning the use of the golden ratio in musical theatre. He was awarded a PhD for this research and a recent artical in the conversation [https://theconversation.com/the-golden-ratio-an-ancient-greek-formula-could-be-responsible-for-most-hit-musicals-160890] has now been read worldwide by 20,000 plus. Recent articles in the Sunday Times and the Sunday Mirror has propelled Dr Langston's readership to over one million views and he has recently presented his findings at the UWS research seminar (November 3rd, 2021). An enhanced video recording of this presentation is available to view here - https://youtu.be/jtJxvdp7FCQ

In January 2022 he was commisioned to write a book chapter for the new Bloomsbury publication about Queen (the band) and is currently awaiting publication of his journal article on the golden ratio and musical theatre construction (Studies in Musical Theatre Journal).

2016 - received funding to study the effects of relaxed performances upon people with learning difficulties with dementia.

Investigating future PhD placements for research into musical theatre

Research on how performance can change the world

Completion of his the Novel "The Golden Musical" a ficticious account of his PhD studies.

Technical Theatre Education and Research

Musical, Orchestral, Choral Commissions