On a chilly February night in London, the top theatremakers, teachers and organisations from around the UK gathered for the 2023 Music & Drama Education Awards. The aim for the evening? To celebrate the innovative work of those aiming to make music and drama education as inclusive, progressive and dynamic as possible. Despite facing an immensely challenging year, this remarkable sector has thrived against extraordinary odds, continuing to offer projects, products, performances and services of a high quality.
Beyond the Bubble
London Bubble Theatre was given the award for Outstanding Drama Initiative for its project ‘Playing Safe’, which was developed in response to the rise in violent crime in Southwark. It aimed to support and engage Year 6 students at risk of serious youth violence, showing a 30-minute play and creating an accompanying session to unpack issues explored within it, both for the children and their parents. Vulnerable students were identified and invited to work with facilitators to create their own show. Overall, the project reached nearly 400 young people in the borough of Southwark. The judges saw this as an innovative response to a social need, with theatre used as a way to engage lesser-reached communities.
Among peers
The Drama Inspiration Award was a category that was equal parts joyful and challenging to judge, due to the high quality of candidates and moving testimonials submitted as part of their applications. After much deliberation, Nina Lemon was declared the winner. The playwright, actor and founder of Peer Productions was praised by the judges for her consistent committed work in providing arts training for young actors whose skills could make a difference in their communities. Young actors who have trained with Peer Productions have experienced family breakdown, domestic abuse, homelessness and mental illness. 83 per cent of those involved go on to attend drama school or explore higher education or related work. As well as overseeing all artistic aspects of Peer Productions, Lemon is researching a PhD at Central School of Speech and Drama exploring how theatre can be used to change the way teenagers think and behave in intimate relationships. Chiswick School performing arts teacher Tommy Robinson was highly commended in this category, engaging children previously disinterested in drama and theatre.
Access to all
I decided to award the Drama & Theatre Magazine Editor’s Award to Vamos Theatre, the UK’s leading full mask theatre company, which has helped increase access to theatre – particularly for those with learning difficulties, sensory issues and audio impairments. 2022 was a particularly significant year for Vamos, with many low-cost, accessible pioneering efforts introduced to expand its offerings. The company introduced mask.ED, its digital learning area with online modules to support the teaching of mask and physical theatre. It also created The Mask Library for state schools and colleges, with 32 full-face character masks available to loan in half-termly blocks, offering teachers and students the opportunity to try out mask theatre without making the significant investment in buying a mask set.
Classroom creativity
In a particularly crowded category of impressive shortlisted applicants, St Mary’s College in Hull was crowned the winner of the Award for Best School Drama Department, sponsored by Wicked Active Learning. The college impressed our panel of judges with its in-house Shakespeare company, diverse approach to teaching and staff-facilitated auditions to vocational colleges and universities. Of these auditions, 100 per cent of students had confirmed offers, with a further 100 per cent offered scholarships for professional training programmes.
‘Student confidence is a big marker of success for us, especially when many of them missed out on performance opportunities during the pandemic,’ explains Ben Lancaster, the school’s director of performing arts. ‘If we are looking for pupil progress, we must first allow them to develop the confidence which allows them to be challenged in class.’
St Mary’s College is made up of a diverse student population – something the Drama department factors into its teaching and keeps in mind when approaching repertoire and texts. ‘While we can’t deliver scripts from every culture that reflect our own community (there simply aren’t enough lessons in the school year to do so), we make it our mission to spotlight the work that represents people from as many cultures as we can,’ he says. ‘This might be through starter activities, opening questions, home learning tasks, or in class when reading extracts.’
Beyond the walls of the classroom, St Mary’s College was also shown to be expanding students’ horizons with myriad performance opportunities. A collaboration with the BBC enabled students to perform on Children in Need and headline an episode of Westenders on BBC Local Radio. The college has also enjoyed a partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company as part of its RSC Associate Schools programme, which has enabled its students to work with Hull Truck Theatre, visit Stratford-upon-Avon to see productions and take part in a residential work experience programme at the RSC. St Mary’s College was one of the first schools to take part in the pilot scheme of this Associate Schools programme, having since established partnerships with other schools in its region. ‘We always aim for the students to work as similarly to a professional company as we can,’ says Lancaster. ‘The extracurricular areas of our department allow students to work with professional lighting, sound and set on an industry-standard stage.’
Students also performed at ExCeL London as part of the MOVE IT dance exhibition weekend, which, Lancaster says, was something the department had wanted to do for quite some time. ‘Placing our students as performers alongside some of the very best professional training establishments in the business was very humbling,’ he says. ‘Along with winning this award, that experience consolidated our belief that what we are aiming to achieve within our teaching faculty is ambitious and correct.’
So, what’s next for the Drama department of St Mary’s College? ‘Our immediate aim is to get through a very demanding – but hopefully successful – exam season again!’ says Lancaster. ‘We are staging more productions than ever before in the summer term. Having just finished Annie (which broke all our previous box office records), we are moving straight into production for Six: Teen Edition, the first performance of this musical in our region. We also have our celebration event at an external theatre this summer, involving students from years 7 to 13.’
© COLIN MILLER
Papped! The Vamos Theatre winners capture the moment at the Music & Drama Education Awards
For Ben Lancaster and his team, this is a moment to evaluate the year, reflect and consider their long-term plans. ‘My hope was always to win this award for Outstanding School Drama Department – so I never really saw past that accolade!’ he says.
Reflecting on the breadth of offerings in this year’s Music & Drama Education Awards is reassuring and inspiring. With schools and services continuing to be placed under extreme pressure with ever-tightening budgets and increased demands, there are still those refusing to compromise on delivering the very best drama and theatre to as wide an audience as possible.
The complete list of winners
Outstanding Musical Initiative (sponsored by The Royal Marines Band Service)
Winner: Opera North, for Opera North Big Sing: The Water Diviner’s Tale
Highly Commended: Surrey Music Hub, for Music Connects
Outstanding Drama Initiative
Winner: London Bubble Theatre, for ‘Playing Safe’
Outstanding Music Education Resource (sponsored by Casio Music UK)
Winner: Out of the Ark Music, for Sparkyard
Outstanding Drama Education Resource
Winner: We Teach Drama, for ‘Think Like a Lighting Designer’
Excellence in SEND (Music & Drama)
Winner: West Midlands Inclusive Choir
Excellence in Musical Theatre (Music & Drama)
Winner: Garsington Opera, for ‘Dalia’
Excellence in Primary/Early Years (Music & Drama) (sponsored by Classic FM)
Winner: Nate Holder, Helen MacGregor, and Collins Music, for ‘Listen and Celebrate’Highly Commended: Live Music Now, for the Lullaby Project
The Rocksteady Award for Progressive and Inclusive Music Education (sponsored by Rocksteady Music School)
Winner: Music for Good, for ‘Music Prescribed for Wellbeing in a GP surgery’ project
Outstanding School Music Department (sponsored by Music Teachers’ Association)
Winner: Nelson Primary School, Newham
Highly Commended: The Bourne Academy, Bournemouth
Outstanding School Drama Department (sponsored by Wicked Active Learning)
Winner: St Mary’s College, Hull
Instrumental or Vocal Teacher of the Year (sponsored by RATstands)
Winner: Daniel Johnston
Francesca Hanley Inspiration Award (sponsored by Musicians’ Union)
Winner: Rebecca Beavis
Highly Commended: Gillian Mott
Drama Inspiration Award
Winner: Nina Lemon
Highly Commended: Tommy Robinson
Music Teacher Magazine Editor’s Award (sponsored by Avid)
Winner: Stephen O’Regan, for the Ukraine Music Hub
Drama & Theatre Magazine Editor’s Award
Winner: Vamos Theatre
Lifetime Achievement Award (sponsored by The Independent Society of Musicians)
Winner: Norton York
Lifetime Achievement Memorial Prize: John Thomson
To read more about the winners of this year’s Music & Drama Education Awards, meet the judges or register your interest for 2024, visit musicdramaedawards.com.