CPD Review: National Theatre Drama Teacher Conference 2023

It's the February half term and for two days drama teachers from all over the country have come together to learn, share, chat and celebrate the joy of what they do. This was the National Theatre's annual Drama Teacher Conference.

‘Yes, we do it each year,’ says Nadia Bettioui, conference leader who took her post at National Theatre immediately after last year's conference which she attended in her former life as a drama teacher. ‘But the last two were done by Zoom. This is the first time we've been back in the room for three years.’

For a while I'm sitting in one of the rooms at the National Theatre which the public don't usually notice – although there are windows onto the side road near the Dorfman entrance. Trios of teachers are earnestly, eagerly giving life to the simplest of tabletop puppets (made from tea towels and elastic bands), which are slowly, painstakingly negotiating a makeshift assault course. Toby Olié, probably the world's best-known puppeteer, is cruising the room offering advice. ‘Give your puppet breath,’ he says. ‘It's all in the breathing. I need to hear it.' He puts a lot of emphasis on what might work with, for or by students.