After an eventful year for both the theatre and education industries, Nick Smurthwaite meets Alice King-Farlow, director of learning & national partnerships at the National Theatre, to reflect on the recent challenges and successes of the organisation's education and outreach.
It takes Alice King-Farlow a full 15 minutes to summarise the far-reaching work of the National Theatre's department of learning and national partnerships. She does so with the fluency and authority of someone who has led the 45-strong education team for the past 15 years.
Clearly somebody who loves what she does, King-Farlow views education and outreach as ‘a fundamental part of how we see the role and function of the National. It's really important for us, as the National Theatre, to have a strong web of connections around the country. It feeds us and informs us about what we should be doing.’
Our conversation coincides with the launch of a major new schools touring show, The LeftBehinds, part of the Theatre Nation Partnerships programme, which played to 10,000 secondary pupils in schools halls from Devon to Sunderland from January to March. As well as being a high octane, futuristic drama, The LeftBehinds, written and directed by Ned Bennett and Ross Willis, gave an opportunity for pupils to take part in an interactive workshop exploring the show's technical elements.
The Theatre Nation Partnerships network focuses on areas that have experienced low investment and limited engagement in cultural activities. More than 50 of the schools involved are also taking part in Speak Up, the nationwide schools programme (now in its third year) to inspire young people to speak up about issues that are important to them.
The LeftBehinds will be added to the NT Collection, a mighty resource consisting of 70 video recordings of NT productions, with supporting educational material, available free to primary and secondary state-funded schools in the UK.
Steps to the profession
A more hands-on approach is expected from the Skills Centre, launched in March last year, which is charged with supporting school leavers to enter the profession through training resources and professional development. Aiming to reach 5,000 young people each year, this includes apprenticeships, nationwide training programmes and the recently launched T-level placements across the building. ‘For T-levels, we're starting small with three student placements so we can get a sense of how we can engage with the qualification and support its adoption in the wider sector,’ King-Farlow explains. The aim is for participants to attain the newly established T-level, a technical qualification that is the equivalent of three A Levels.
Technical prowess
The department also rolls out a Young Technicians programme each year for 14-18 year-olds, led by NT staffers, aimed at those who are under-represented in the backstage sector. An online course is also available from January to March, with a printed resource pack.
Commissions and connections
One of the NT's longest running programmes, Connections, celebrates its 30th anniversary this summer. Each year, 10 new plays are commissioned for young people to perform. In 2023-24, more than 250 youth companies from all over the country were involved, bringing together some of the UK's most exciting writers with the theatre-makers of tomorrow. Connections is open to any company made up of young people aged 13 to 19, whether it's a school, youth theatre or voluntary organisation.
Pathway to playwriting
King-Farlow is also pleased to be relaunching New Views, a nationwide in-school playwriting programme for students aged between 14 and 19, offering a devising and playwriting course designed to encourage aspiring playwrights and performers to kickstart the often-daunting playwriting process. It reminds us, King-Farlow says, that ‘theatre is a way of understanding and exploring the world around us, as well as yourself and your ideas.’
Reaching out to teachers
In February, King-Farlow and some of her team hosted the department's annual conference for drama teachers at the Lowry, Salford, the first time in its nine-year history that it hasn't been held on London's South Bank. ‘The idea of the conference is to underline the National's commitment to drama teaching, and to show how we think of drama teachers as part of the wider creative profession of theatre makers,’ she says. ‘They are nurturing the next generation of artists and practitioners.’
This year's conference featured guest appearances from director Lyndsey Turner and playwright Alecky Blythe, as well as representatives of the companies Complicité, Shakespeare North, Theatre Ad Infinitum and The Knotted Project. There was a session on technical theatre skills with the NT Skills Centre team, and a session on representation focusing on global stories and texts taught in schools.
King-Farlow regards the conference as one of the key events in the department's calendar. ‘Drama teachers have had a tough time over the past 14 years, with resources being squeezed and the limitations imposed by EBacc, so we wanted to strengthen our relationship with them,’ she says. ‘By meeting up once a year we can offer them a space where they can meet and share their experiences. Holding it at the Lowry this year was an opportunity to welcome some teachers who hadn't attended before.’
Highs and lows
The only cloud on King-Farlow's horizon in 2024-25 was the decrease in funding for the NT's primary schools touring programmes, which prompted a letter of protest from 50 actors, directors and other sector workers to The Stage last November. That newspaper's columnist, Lyn Gardner, called the move ‘an own goal at a time when theatre needs to demonstrate more than ever to government what a crucial role it has to play is supporting and restoring expressive arts to their essential place in schools.’
Did King-Farlow see it coming? ‘It's not a change any of us would have wanted to make, but sometimes it is necessary to pause certain programmes. When I started at the National, we paused Connections because we needed to review how we were doing it. The commitment to working with primary and secondary schools remains constant, it's just that sometimes we have to review the way we do it.
‘I totally understand the response: it's symbolically as well as literally an important part of our work, and one that I really care about. But I'm confident we can bring it – or something like it – back to the National. Of course I would love us to be touring again, it's just that I'm not in a position to say exactly when and how.’
Stay tuned to see what happens next. Suffice to say, it's not been a quiet year for Alice King-Farlow – or anyone at the National Theatre, for that matter.
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