Latest From The Blog
Hear our latest news and gossip from across the UK in the Open Drama Blog!
From Nissen Hut to Kneehigh
Mike Shepherd, Founder and former Artistic Director of Kneehigh, contemplates the theatrical and educational landscape, and introduces the Kneehigh Legacy Proj ...
The ‘F’ Word – FREE Performances
We spoke to Molly Freeman, Co-Artistic Director of Smoking Apples Theatre, about the challenges of keeping their work free for audiences, including their lates ...
Illuminate North Drama Teachers Conference 2024: A Day of Inspiration and Connection
Morgan Hartley attended our Illuminate Conference at LIPA last month. Here's their recap of the sessions on offer, and a reflection on how useful they found it ...
Empowering the student as a theatre maker: A new rich-knowledge Theatre A level
Phil Cleaves runs essentialdrama.com, a collection of interviews with leading theatre academics and theatre professionals, and has just completed a PhD thesis, ...
Sam Marsden Book Review – Drama Games for Early Years (4-7) & Acting Exercises for Creative Writing
There are three types of drama books on the shelves of Drama teachers across the land. Mixed in with play texts we used for that one awkward GCSE group back in ...
Navigating our way to inspiring options at KS4 and KS5
What does a devising process look like? How does a theatre company get from a fledgling idea, to a fully staged devised production? Who’s involved? And how di ...
ESU’s Performing Shakespeare Grand Final
The English Speaking Union ran their Performing Shakespeare Grand Final in June, and ODUK Co-Founder Karen Latto wrote this blog on how the event went and how ...
Word Diagrams for Drama
This blog is based on an article first published in “National Drama” magazine. Introduction - My Journey I have been experimenting with graphical represe ...
Dual Coding in the GCSE Drama Curriculum
This blog is based on an article first published in "National Drama" magazine. Introduction - My Journey I have been using ‘dual coding’ in my teaching f ...
“Extremely energising and inspiring” – National Theatre Drama Teachers Conference 2023
Recently the National Theatre held its Drama Teachers Conference. We asked Jack Beswick, our Merseyside Champion, and Charlotte Cattrall, a d ...
“A Surge Of Creative Excitement” – Illuminate Drama Teacher Conference Southampton Review
What a great title for a conference that was both inspirational and shed fresh light on why we chose to be drama teachers in the first place. ...
Show and Business
Russell Lucas writes about why we should put sales at the centre of theatre training.
Fourth Monkey: Getting Ready for Drama School
Fourth Monkey share their top tips on getting ready for Drama School!
Book Review: Doing Remote Theatre by Nick Bilbrough (Hands Up Theatre)
While many of us think that the Pandemic has made us change elements of our teaching – possible forever, possibly for good – one of the challenges of keeping D ...
Book Review: The Drama Teacher’s Handbook by Keith Burt
The lack of any official KS3 National Curriculum is both a blessing and a curse for Drama teachers, forever allowing us to spread our creative wings in devisin ...
There is hope! 93% of all schools are offering Level 1/2 Performing Arts & Drama qualifications
Results day is always a day of great anticipation, the media rolls out the same slightly irritating headlines and we all carry on year after year doing what w ...
Book Review: 200 Plays… by Jason Hanlan
Ali Warren reviews 200 Plays for GCSE and A-Level Performance by Jason Hanlan.
Open Drama UK join Downe House Drama Teach Meet
As Open Drama UK Champions across all four nations continue to connect with drama teachers and educators in these testing and trying times, Sam Martin, our Ber ...
Open Drama UK & We Teach Drama join forces!
Taking Centre Stage as an ECT is a proposed Webinar Series for the academic year 2021-2022. The webinar series will be organised and delivered by We Teach Dram ...
Theatre Review: Hidden by Nina Lemon & Peer Productions
Peer Productions' latest production Hidden by Nina Lemon. Hidden tells the story of the recovery of three very different teenagers as they struggle with their ...