Open Drama UK provides a new network for all working in drama with young people
A group of drama educators has come together in 2019 to form a new forum and networking group for all those who work with young people in drama. Holly Barradell, Ed Boott (artistic director, NONSUCH Theatre Company), Karen Latto, Catherine Nash and Ali Warren – all regular contributors both to Teaching Drama and the Music & Drama Education Expo – announced their founding of the group in March, saying ‘Drama education is under threat. Whether you work in schools or in a theatre participation department it has become harder and harder to bring experiences of this valuable and powerful art form to the widest possible number of young people, as government initiatives and funding problems wear away the possible opportunities.
‘Drama teachers and educators need to band together to support each other, to fight the cause of Drama and share ideas and experiences to create a richer, stronger community for all of us working within the art form with young people.
So it seems the perfect time to launch a new networking group to try to bring all Drama practitioners together.’
Open Drama aims to be ‘a new voice for Drama education, inclusive of all sectors' and to build ‘a stronger, more committed drama network across the UK collaborating with all Drama organisations who want to work with us.’
‘Big organisations need to listen to teachers,’ says Ali Warren of Open Drama, ‘people who actually deliver to young people and actually know what's needed. These people are often solo practitioners in their institutions struggling to provide positive experiences in the face of challenges. By banding together we can speak and be heard. There are few opportunities for practitioners to meet and to share good practice and CPD. Open Drama is going to work with and for Drama educators on these areas.’
Development of the network is to begin with a series of events spanning the country from Bath to Leeds, Birmingham to Tunbridge Wells, taking place over the week beginning Saturday 18 May, and with all drama educators welcome to attend.
For further information contact opendramauk@gmail.com or Ed Boott on 07920062468. Tickets for the network events can be reserved at https://tinyurl.com/OpenDramaUK
Oddsocks 30th anniversary UK tour to offer schools matinees
Oddsocks Productions celebrates its thirtieth anniversary this summer with a new adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Schools matinees will take place through the summer term at a range of venues across the country, while student-priced tickets will be offered at many evening performances to encourage, the company explains, as many young people as possible to experience their ‘unique combination of Shakespeare's text, popular music and physical comedy in an up-beat two hours of laugh a minute Shakespeare performed by seriously skilled actor musicians.’
‘This particular play is such a good one to introduce students to the performance of Shakespeare for the first time,’ remarks creative producer Elli Mackenzie, ‘it features four young people who can't relate to the older generation, a bunch of hilariously bad amateur actors who exhibit all the characteristics of embarrassing uncles, and a group of supernatural beings who would be quite at home in a cult E4 box set. I'm sure that sometimes, reading Shakespeare with a class of year eights can seem as challenging as asking them to perform a classic novel. Novels are meant to be read, plays to be performed.’ so when an opportunity to see Shakespeare brought to life by professional actors at a local venue comes up, I think it is vital that the students are encouraged to come along.’ www.oddsocks.co.uk
Wise Children to adapt Malory Towers for its second production
Emma Rice's new production company Wise Children, launched in 2018 after her departure from Shakespeare's Globe, has announced that it will co-produce an adaptation of Enid Blyton's Malory Towers with York Theatre Royal and in association with Bristol Old Vic.
The production, adapted and directed by Rice, will premiere in Bristol, where Wise Children is based, before touring to Cambridge, York, Exeter, Manchester and Oxford. Head of licensed content for Hachette Children's Group, Karen Lawler, said ‘Enid Blyton created incredible female characters at Malory Towers: strong, capable and always kind – “women the world can lean on”, in Enid's own words. We share Emma's passion for these characters and we couldn't be more excited to see Emma's vision of Malory Towers come to life.’
Wise Children's first show, Angela Carter's Wise Children, finished its tour in Coventry in early April; Malory Towers will run from July 18 to October 5, with a press night in Bristol on July 25. www.wisechildren.co.uk
Lowry, Brit School and BBC join Youth Performance Partnership programme
Following the announcement last year by culture secretary Jeremy Wright of a £5 million programme to teach performing arts to 10,000 children in the UK, the BBC, Brit School and Lowry theatre have signed up as cultural organisations to work with local schools in five designated areas of the country: Croydon, Derby, Medway in Kent, Plymouth and Salford.
Five to 18-year-olds in these five areas will work with a number of local arts institutions where they will be taught theatre skills and work with playwrights to develop new writing which they will then perform. Skills including set design, lighting, sound, and dance will also be taught on the programme, aimed at engaging 10,000 disadvantaged young people with the performing arts.
Other partners already announced include the Theatre Royal Plymouth and the Gulbenkian youth theatre in Canterbury. Announcing the new additions at a Brit School event, Wright said, ‘As I know from my own experience, performing on stage can be transformative for young people. It can boost self esteem, build confidence and teach skills they will use throughout their lives. Our Youth Performance Partnerships will give thousands of young people the chance to work directly with world-class cultural organisations and inspire the next generation of playwrights, actors or producers.’
www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding-finder/youth-performance-partnerships
Leeds University Drama Teacher Conference announces Hywel Roberts as keynote speaker
The fourth annual Drama Teacher Conference run by Leeds University's School of Performance & Cultural Industries is to take place on Friday 5 July 2019, with the addition of an optional study day extension of seminars and lectures on Saturday 6 July. The conference, run in association with Leeds Playhouse, will feature as its keynote speaker Hywel Roberts, leader of the PGCE programme in Drama at Huddersfield University.
A variety of interactive sessions will be on offer to delegates at the conference, devised and delivered by partners from Leeds Playhouse and by research and teaching staff from Leeds University's department. The programme promises ideas, methods and techniques that can be adapted for use in the classroom across all secondary key stages and can be viewed in full on the event website.
Places at the conference are funded and therefore free of charge, however, they are limited, with a booking deadline of Friday 31 May.
To read the programme: https://tinyurl.com/TDSU2LeedsProg
To book: https://tinyurl.com/TDSU2LeedsBook
National Theatre River Stage lineup to include Frantic Assembly workshops
The National Theatre (NT)'s annual River Stage Festival has announced its creative partners for 2019, including Frantic Assembly, who will celebrate their 25th birthday with a weekend takeover of the South Bank stage, to involve DJ's, live music, movement workshops and performances, among other things.
Frantic Assembly join a number of other partners already announced, with a full line-up of acts, artists and performers to be made public at a later date. Each partner takes ownership of the river stage for a weekend, spanning the period from 5 July to 4 August, with the NT itself taking final weekend, from 2-4 August, to throw open its doors and bring free family theatre, dance and music to the public.
Rufus Norris, director of the National Theatre, said ‘River Stage has become synonymous with London's summer festival scene: a month long celebration of the arts on the banks of the River Thames that welcomes revellers, the culturally curious and families to come and experience an abundance of talented performers and artists for free. This year, we are thrilled to partner once again with The Glory, as well as partners new to River Stage Shubbak Festival, National Park City Festival and Frantic Assembly and curating our own National Theatre take-over for the final weekend.’
www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/river-stage-2019
Southwark Council announces free theatre trips for all primary age students
On Tuesday 12 March, the council of the London borough of Southwark agreed to pledge £500k to implement a programme ensuring that every primary student aged between five and eleven gets a free visit to the theatre every year.
‘Southwark has a reputation as a borough of creativity, innovation, and opportunity,’ said the council's representatives, ‘alongside Shakespeare's Globe sit small experimental theatres in the heart of our diverse communities such as Blue Elephant and Theatre Peckham as well as brand new contemporary performance spaces such as The Bridge. In addition Southwark is home to the Unicorn, the UK's leading professional theatre for young audiences, and the borough is fast becoming known as a destination for off-West-End theatre.
‘Theatre, particularly theatre for children, fires the imagination. It gives children the skills and the creativity necessary to face the world, to understand it and perhaps to change it too, discovering their own voice, growing in confidence and developing empathy,’ said the council's representative, ‘It is now widely understood that early cultural interventions, such as this programme, can shape outcomes in later life. It's highly likely that providing arts engagement for very young children will have a significant impact on their engagement and aspirations in later life.
‘With 19 theatres in Southwark and 30 located within easy access of the schools, this programme will match these theatres with the more than 20,000 primary school aged children in state funded primary schools, home schooling, looked after children and children schooled at the Hospital and Home Tuition Sick Children's Service at Kings College and Evelina hospitals.’
A digital platform will be created to promote and bring all the opportunities for Southwark schools together in one place, connecting schools with theatres to identify and match existing free and discounted theatre ticket schemes. The programme will work expressly with schools that do not have a history of visiting the theatre and those in areas of higher deprivation, with resources to be focused on these non-active theatre going schools, ensuring they benefit and are financially supported where needed.
While theatre provision in Southwark is hard to match with any other council jurisdiction in the country, it is to be hoped that other such undertakings might be considered for the allocation of council funding elsewhere in the UK.
UK theatre careers resource Get Into Theatre launched online
A website which aims to remove barriers to young people to pursuing a career in theatre has been launched by The Stage, the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, UK Theatre and the Society of London Theatre.
Following a 2016 report commissioned by the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation which found that one of the main barriers to people from BAME and lower-income backgrounds pursuing careers in theatre was a lack of information about the on and off-stage career opportunities, support and experiences that the theatre industry offers. Get Into Theatre has been set up to address this need.
The website will directly combat the lack of diversity, training and awareness of routes into the industry that has resulted in its misconception as a high-risk career choice.
Working to combat these issues, Get Into Theatre will place a particular emphasis on supporting underprivileged young people, especially those from ethnic minority backgrounds, who are less likely to have a personal industry contact to help them navigate their career path.
Cassandra Chadderton, Head of UK Theatre, said ‘We must invest in and value our off-stage workforce now if it is to continue to thrive in the future. Get Into Theatre will give all young people considering a career in theatre the clear and practical advice they need, and help theatre to attract a more diverse range of people to the industry - improving our relevance, and our resilience, in the long term,’ while Khadija Raza, set designer, said ‘Get Into Theatre helps to demystify what working in theatre is actually like and opens up the possibility of finding out about the many backstage roles that exist. I think something like this would have been vital when I first discovered theatre as a teenager. To have had this wealth of information and support would have been an excellent resource.’
Get Into Theatre will work alongside other careers initiatives including Inspiring the Future of Theatre, which since launching last year has recruited over 1000 industry ambassadors to go into schools and talk about off-stage careers; Theatrecraft, the UK's biggest careers event for off-stage roles; the Creative Careers Programme; and Stage Sight, a peer to peer collective working to improve diversity.
West End Stage opens booking for its 2019 summer school
One year after celebrating its 10,000th student in 2018, West End Stage has opened bookings for its week-long theatre summer school for 8-21 year-olds, which will take place in London this August. With tutors who are all West End performers, leading a variety of drama, singing and dance classes, grouped according to age and ability, young performers will be challenged, supported and encouraged to shine on a West End stage themselves.
Culminating in an opportunity to make their very own West End debut at Her Majesty's Theatre, home of The Phantom of the Opera, the summer school also offers masterclasses in everything from current West End choreography to stage combat and acting for television. The course also includes tickets to a production, followed by a Q&A with some of the show's cast members.
Taking place at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, with access to its art studios, theatres, concert halls and studio theatres, the course is one week long, running from Monday to Sunday on each of 5-11, 12-18, and 19-25 August 2019. Chaperoned accommodation is also available to book, if required (subject to availability).
Last year, 26% of students attended from outside the UK, coming from 52 countries, far and wide. For more information, visit www.westendstage.com
Nick Hern Books launches new series of plays commissioned for young people
Multiplay Drama, also to be found mentioned in features later in this issue of TD, offers ten titles to be licensed for performance each of which were originally commissioned for performance by young people at youth theatres and drama schools, as follows:
- Blister by Laura Lomas (Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, in collaboration with Paines Plough)
- Blue by Joe Ward Munrow (Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, in collaboration with the Royal Court Theatre)
- katzenmusik by Tom Fowler (Royal Court Youth Theatre)
- Landmines by Phil Davies (The BRIT School's training initiative, The Bridge Company)
- The Real Estate by Freddie Machin (Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts)
- The Red Helicopter by Robin French (Young Friend of the Almeida LAB Company)
- Skunk by Zawe Ashton (National Youth Theatre)
- Spooky Action at a Distance by Eve Leigh (Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, in collaboration with the Royal Court Theatre)
- THREE by Sophie Ellerby (National Youth Theatre)
- VS09 by Hayley Squires (Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, in collaboration with the Royal Court Theatre)
The plays, all designed for performance by large casts of young performers, can be downloaded free of charge from the Multiplay Drama website, where the license can also be bought for performance. ‘These plays are as ambitious in their imaginative scope as they are in their cast size!’ said Rupert Goold, Artistic Director of the Almeida Theatre, ‘Unseen communities are brought vividly to life, family bonds tighten or fracture, and institutions and attitudes at the core of our society are challenged in this brilliant collection of contemporary ensemble plays.’
Applications open for NT's Young Technicians’ and Young Makers’ programmes
Applications are open for two free National Theatre (NT) training programmes for young people aged 14-18, offering an opportunity to develop technical skills with the support of the NT's professionals. In recognition that young women, and young people from BAME backgrounds are both underrepresented groups in the field, the theatre says that priority will be given to these applicants.
The Young Technicians’ programme is now in its third year, and covers lighting, sound, video and stage. Alumni have now provided technical support for a range of NT learning projects, with some progressing into formal training in technical theatre.
The programme runs on Wednesday evenings between October 2019 and March 2020. The young technicians will have the opportunity to shadow NT professionals and provide technical support to the NT youth programme during the Easter and Summer holidays 2020.
This year, the theatre also launches a brand-new Young Makers’ Programme. This free week-long course will take place in August and will explore the craft of production including costume and props. Young people aged 14-18 will learn practical skills and techniques used by theatre professionals and discover the vast array of offstage roles which exist in these departments. The course also includes a ticket to watch the NT production of Small Island on 8 August.
Alice King-Farlow, Director of Learning at the National Theatre, said, ‘The UK's creative sector is world-leading and is the fastest growing part of the UK economy, contributing £102billion in the last year. There is huge employment growth in the sector and technical skills are in great demand for the many backstage and off-stage careers that are integral to theatre-making. We want to encourage young people who may not have considered a career in theatre to apply to this programme and discover more about the world of theatre-making through practical workshops and the opportunity to learn directly from theatre professionals.’
Application deadlines are 14 July for the Young Makers’ and 11 September for the Young Technicians’ programme. Go to https://tinyurl.com/TDSu2YMYT