Editorial: Summer Term 2 2018-19

Drama teachers are inspiring folk. I am constantly blown away by their resilience and determination against all sorts of odds.

I was invited to attend the Executive Committee meeting of National Drama this month. Sitting around a table in a room in central London, but hailing from all over the country, were a group of people who ranged in age from those who had taught for decades and now retired, to those relatively new to the profession.

We had a fascinating discussion about the way in which approaches to drama teaching have been forced to change over the period of forty or more years of which those present had first-hand experience. People sitting at that table remembered a golden era when drama was genuinely appreciated as a vital and contributing part of our education system, when new pedagogical approaches were being developed and the emphasis was on method – practice – process drama. Drama teachers were ‘experimenters’ then. Today, pressure from OFSTED and the need to quantify everything in paperwork, grades, jumping through the next exam-shaped hoop, mean that there is precious little time for experimentation.

However, drama teachers find a way: and they gather in groups to champion best practice, too. National Drama is one example, Open Drama UK, a new initiative (see News on page 6) another. The many drama teachers and practitioners who gather for the Music & Drama Education Expos do just this too, and the call for papers for the Manchester show in October 2019 has only just closed, so that I and my team of advisers now face the daunting but rewarding task of programming from a host of truly inspired and inspirational session proposals.

We're all about to go off for our lovely, well-earned summer break, but Teaching Drama will be back, like you, fully refreshed in the Autumn term, and you'll notice some changes. With all the old favourites still firmly in place, there'll be some brand new regular material in the magazine: more practical advice and expertise from your peers and other leaders in the field, a shiny new look, and a little more banging of that drum to get greater recognition of drama's contribution and support from the powers-that-be. I so hope that you will love it.

In the meantime, this last issue of the academic year brings you a number of different features on sources for new and exciting play texts to perform with your students. Turn to pages 20, 26, 27 and 31 for four different features all on this subject. And our cover feature looks at courses to introduce you and your students to the many and varied skills needed for work in film and television. Television drama is a growing industry and one in which it's actually possible to make a living! So it shouldn't be neglected as a possible path for your students. Not for you, though, naturally. You're a drama teacher, and that resilience and determination I mentioned wouldn't allow you to flit off to producing career with Netflix. You've got a vocation, and for following it, and continuing to inspire me and – more importantly – hundreds of thousands of young people, I salute you.