Survive and conquer

Last week, after another day's online teaching, I slumped on the sofa for something soothing, mind numbing and easy to watch. An episode of Pointless – Celebrities caught my attention. More specifically, it was Alexander Armstrong in his pre-game chat with contestant Cathy Tyson, asking her how she had started out as a performer.

Tyson (star of Mona Lisa, Band of Gold and much more besides) explained that she was ‘lucky enough’ to be able to study Drama, every week throughout secondary school, star in school productions and learn about who she was. She found a subject she enjoyed, she said, and realised that she was good at it.

Tyson paid credit to her Drama teacher who was her inspiration, also mentioning that he was the school's Maths teacher. And in this anecdote, I realised that we have so many issues which remain pertinent to our profession today: the idea that our subject is something of a luxury (it isn't) rather than essential (it absolutely should be) – the starting steps it provided for someone working in a creative industry, the unlocking of potential through Drama and the school productions, and the fact that the subject was being delivered by a Maths specialist. Sadly, our subject is still having to fight its corner.

Fight our corner

The Drama Teacher's Survival Guide is a book which, I hope, fiercely argues the case for Drama being a vital and essential part of every child's education. Our subject is in decline; each year we see smaller numbers of students taking the subject at GCSE and A Level. The current government, in its eternal wisdom, doesn't seem especially interested in reigniting our subject and placing it front and centre in its curriculum focus.

The book draws on my nearly two decades of teaching in a variety of settings and tries to provide inspiration, advice and ‘proppingup’ for new and experienced Drama teachers everywhere, because we are going to have to do this for ourselves.

Operation catch-up

We need it now more than ever. As well as a subject in decline, having survived the challenges of curriculum delivery throughout a global pandemic (a sentence which would have been the stuff of science fiction only 18 months ago), we are now going to be faced with the real uphill struggle.

Remote learning, or the type of face-to-face learning which became commonplace under Covid-19 measures is, at best, a bandage or stop-gap and in no way a real representation of what we do as subject professionals or how our students might engage with our subject. When we get back to ‘normal’ (full timetables face-to-face, parents’ evenings, reports, school productions, counting the days until half term), we are going to have swathes of learners who will have become deskilled. ‘Operation catch-up in Drama’ is going to be huge. Some Key Stage 3 students will scarcely have seen the inside of a drama studio. Some of our examination level groups are going to be starting their courses without the proper runup through Key Stage 3 where those practical skills are developed and refined.

Work together

I have no idea how we are going to do this. Forging a plan now would be futile; we need to wait until we get the green light, pause, and draw breath and start to identify where the gaps are in our students’ knowledge and understanding. And then try to fill those gaps.

With theatres closed, for now, we will have to draw on our existing resources, our experience and ingenuity. Those of you who are new to the profession, or not a trained Drama specialist, are going to have to lean on the ‘old hands’ among us. We need to work together. We need to galvanise and try to metaphorically join hands across the country – in person and online – and work out how we are going to capture the attention and imagination of our students.

A new dawn

For now, let's focus on all the good stuff that we can take from our time teaching online. The resources we've had to create out of necessity, the strategies we've used to deliver ‘live’ theatre and set text projects, as well as finding ways to try to bring some degree of creativity into our students’ remote learning. Without being too end-of-a-disaster-movie about it, let's try and see it as a new dawn.

The Cathy Tysons and Daniel Kaluuyas and Michaela Coels of tomorrow are in our drama classes right now. We owe it to them to find ways to reignite passion and excitement – theirs and ours – for Drama.

Our subject is a unique mix of practical work, academic theory and collaboration. We should celebrate that and remember that we still have a job to do in terms of turning the tide on the decline in our precious and brilliant subject. And we will do it, all of us, collaboratively, because we care about and love our subject. It's definitely a worthwhile cause.

The Drama Teacher's Survival Guide by Matthew Nichols is available now from Bloomsbury.