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 Project. Production photograph from The Tin Drum (2017) Credit: Steve Tanner In my grand ...
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 latest piece of work. One of our main strands of work at Smoking Apples is making and creati ...
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. On Friday 21st June, I had the privilege of spending the day at t ...
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 2014 there will be a little collection.The first type will be drama pedagogy or theory. W ...
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 you can enter your school into next year's competition. On Friday the 23rd of June stud ...
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 for many years; I knew that images and diagrams added clarity when I was teaching, and that ...
“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 drama teacher at Maida Vale School in London, what their takeaways were. Jack Beswick: I ...
“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. The venue was excellent for this conference and the Mast staff were friendly and accom ...
Show and Business
Russell Lucas writes about why we should put sales at the centre of theatre training.
Book Review: The Drama Teacher’s Survival Guide by Matthew Nicholls
There are a lot of books about Drama and Theatre out there. There are books that tell you how to teach things; there are books full of games; there are books that tell you why you should be teaching Drama. I know this because I have shelves full of ...
Reflections on our #DramaSupport Early Career Teachers Event
Back in July Open Drama UK: North West and Manchester Metropolitan University hosted a day-long event of online support for early-career drama teachers. We caught up with four of our amazing speakers to hear their thoughts on the event, their re ...
Open Drama UK Launches!
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 govern ...