Resource Review: We Teach Drama Resources

We Teach Drama is a new online resource and CPD hub for those teaching drama in secondary and sixth form contexts.

Its resource library is accessed freely – you just join the mailing list, and a password is sent. It is divided into sections such as Character Work, Design and Developing Writing. Being relatively young as a website, the resources under each heading vary in number, but the bank will be ever developing, and many can be given out directly to students too.

One section – Practitioners and Genres – is particularly well-stocked already. It includes, for example, a series of resources on Katie Mitchell that build a very exciting Live Cinema Scheme to be enjoyed by a suggested age range of 14 to 19-year-old drama students. To create the resources, We Teach Drama have used information gleaned from a Royal Court Theatre online session with Mitchell to outline how to create her unique Live Cinema style and how it can be explored with students, using her methodology to create a 10 stepped scheme.

To aid the usefulness of this resource, there is student guide sheet on Mitchell, a brainstorming sheet and a storyboarding sheet for students to plot their filmtheatre devised pieces in the style of Mitchell's Live Cinema. The student sheets are not particularly innovative, but they are attractively designed and clear to follow, saving teacher time. The scheme is by no means complete, and there would be much for the teacher or facilitator to organise in addition, but the resources offer a solid starting point.

The website also outlines CPD and workshops on offer. This autumn, for example, there are a couple of webinar sessions that link to Our Country's Good, including one on lighting design with professional lighting designer Josh Tomalin. The fact that the webinars are offered so low in cost (and can be accessed again for 30 days afterwards if you were a participant) and are streamed live or at a time that suits you, is obviously attractive for time and cash-tight departments. Despite being in its early stages, We Teach Drama appears to be a hub whose growth is worth watching.

The resource is available at www.weteachdrama.com