Drama

Culture enriches lives, and participation in creative and cultural activities can have a significant impact on young people, by developing their appreciation, their skills and helping them to learn.

This has been shown repeatedly in international studies, and has also been backed up by recent evaluations of major programmes such as Creative Partnerships and Museums’ Strategic Commissioning. What these evaluations have shown is that culture and the arts can help young people achieve all of the Every Child Matters outcomes.

As well as being valuable and enjoyable in its own right, participation in cultural activities also gives young people the chance to develop important life skills such as creativity, confidence, self-discipline, effective communication and the ability to work in teams. These skills are particularly important in a world of rapid technological and social change where the cultural and creative industries are increasingly important to our economic future.

That is why a commitment was made in the Children’s Plan to work towards a position where all children and young people — no matter where they live or what their background — have the chance to participate in at least five hours of high-quality culture per week, in and out of school. The Find Your Talent programme looks at different ways of offering young people a range of cultural experiences.

The aim is to give young people the chance to develop as:

• informed spectators (through attending top quality theatre and dance performances, world class exhibitions, galleries, museums and heritage sites)
• participants and creators (through learning a musical instrument, playing and singing in ensembles, taking part in theatre and dance performances, producing artwork, making films and media art, or curating an exhibition).

Arts and cultural activities are also an important stimulus to develop young people’s creativity. Learning outside the classroom activities which give children and young people the opportunity to work on real-life challenges; handle risk; develop their capacity to think imaginatively and creatively; define and explore complex problems; use and adapt multiple resources both within their community and beyond in order to experiment and devise solutions to these problems — all of these experiences nurture the mix of thinking, imagining, facing the unknown and making things happen which are the ingredients of creativity.

Examination Boards claim that GCE A Level and GCSE Drama courses not only allow students to demonstrate their skill and understanding of the dramatic arts but enable students to undertake challenging activities and to develop as human beings. Courses include such options as:

• improvisation
• stagecraft
• set design
• costume
• make-up and masks
• puppets
• lighting and sound
• stage management

Theatre visits will occupy an important place in any school Drama course. As well as watching plays, musicals, revues, operas, schools will want to seek out opportunities to see how these are put together. Drama teachers also appreciate the opportunity to show the ‘behind-the-scenes’ activities. A number of companies and organisations offer such possibilities.

For many years the Royal Opera House has not only staged school matinees, but also offered workshops to primary and secondary schools, including the opportunity for schools to create their own opera. 

There are many travelling workshop companies that visit schools, too. This is known as Theatre in Education, a movement which was pioneered by the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry in the 1960s. To download a history of Theatre in Education (TIE) click HERE. There are hundreds of companies who offer TIE and will visit your school to cover topics such as Joyriding, alcohol, smoking, truancy and even the transition to 'big school'. Such visits often engender interesting and involving discussions on the topics concerned amongst students.

One particular branch of TIE is Improv (short for Improvisation). This is often a participation theatrical experience as the actors involve students in the action, improvising scenes and sometimes even the story, engaging students even further.

Contacting companies who work in your area and subscribing to their mailing list or regular email updates will keep you in touch with what is on offer.

Main organisations:

Arts Council

National Drama

Drama UK

London Drama

National Foundation for Educational Research

Inclusion: NASEN

Thought of visiting?

Ticketmaster.com (other ticket websites are available and tickets are often cheaper when purchased direct from the venue)

Cabaret Mechanical Theatre

West Yorkshire Playhouse

Belgrade Theatre, Coventry

Birmingham Repertory Company

Bristol Old Vic

Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford

Theatre Royal, Plymouth

Everyman Theatre, Liverpool