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NATIONAL DRAMA

The UK’s leading professional subject association for all teachers, educators and theatre practitioners in drama and theatre educational contexts and community settings

National Drama is dedicated to ensuring that all  young people have the opportunity to learn about and through drama. Our mission is the development, promotion and support of Drama and Theatre both in the UK and Internationally. We are an open and inclusive organisation – One Forum: Many Voices – and we positively welcome as members all those who are interested in drama and theatre in educational contexts and community settings, whether in the UK or beyond.

The Drama and Theatre Education Curriculum: relevant; representative; inclusive.

The nature of the current educational context, in which we all find ourselves, is not simply the consequence of the Pandemic. It is also the result of a long legacy of reductionist policies that have seen our practice, theory and art marginalised.

ND intends to provide the membership with clear guidance concerning the learning potential of drama and theatre experiences for all children and young people.

There have been few supportive documents in recent years that have enabled teachers, in those schools where the subject is ‘under threat’, to make their case for the subject’s sustainable identity. ND will address this ‘gap’ and provide members with supportive position papers that articulate a coherent rationale for drama as a core subject.

The Executive intend to create a series of draft papers that are relevant to primary, secondary, teacher education, special educational needs and age-appropriate professional theatre experiences. These papers can be used as aids in professional conversations between teachers and curriculum policy-makers.

We celebrate the fact that we have many members who have the insight, experience, expertise and enthusiasm to contribute to our collective vision.

If you would like to be involved in this work, please send expressions of interest to:

chair@nationaldrama.org.uk or executive@nationaldrama.org.uk

This will be an exciting journey that could result in support for everyone who works in drama and theatre education.

Geoff Readman

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Drama Magazine

ISSN 0967-4454

Drama is National Drama’s magazine of professional practice, ISSN 0967-4454. Published twice a year, this hard copy, print publication contains a wealth of features and articles for and by drama teachers and theatre educators in many contexts within the UK and overseas. Content focuses on practical teaching experiences and projects drawn from across educational contexts and includes classroom materials, schemes of work, interviews and reviews of books and other resources.

You can subscribe to Drama magazine and receive hard copies twice yearly, but if you become a full member you can also access Drama Research, our International Journal of Drama in Education, and  receive discounts on our CPD events.

Spring 2024 issue

Under Stjänorna (Under the Stars)

  • Drama Really Matters
  • Young Voices
  • Leeds TiE: Looking for Callum
  • The Power and Pride in Performing the Past
  • Inspiring Hope and Ambition
  • Learning for the Common People
  • Looking Back to Inform the Future
  • Interview with Lemn Sissay
  • Taking off: Drama CPD in a Primary School
  • ND Response to Arts in Schools 2023
  • Centre Pull Out Resource: Boudica

Drama Research

International Journal of Drama in Education

ISSN 2040-2228

An innovative international refereed  e journal that provides a forum for practitioners and researchers across the spectrum of drama in educational settings. We encourage, gather and publish research-based articles from established and new writers to promote knowledge, understanding and dialogue about drama in learning contexts.

By subscribing to Drama Research you will have immediate access to the current issue, and after the first year you will be able to access the entire archive. However if you join National Drama as a full member you will have immediate access to the latest issue and the entire archive, as well as free copies of Drama Magazine  and discounts on CPD events.

Vol 14. No.1: April 2023

Welcome to the fourteenth issue of Drama Research! This is the second issue in our new format, and it has a truly international dynamic, featuring articles from Colombia, Greece, Norway and the USA as well as the UK.
One thing that all these countries have in common through recent experience is, of course, the global pandemic, and two of the research projects featured in this issue were conducted through this period of threat and social disruption.

Articles:

  • Exploring National Identity through Drama in Education
  • From a Theatrical Play to the Play of Life
  • Intimacy Direction Best Practices for School Theatre
  • Reflections on ‘living through’ and ‘distancing’: a critical essay related to Heathcote’s and Brecht’s poetics
  • Speech Bubbles and the Teaching Assistant: investigating the impact of a drama intervention on school support staff.
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30th – 31st May 2024
Bromsgrove Hotel & Spa,
Birmingham

Early Bird Offer:
Member: £130
Non Member: £145
includes accomodation and food

Join National Drama & Friends at our 2024 Drama Teacher Conference in this our year of advocacy. Full conference details and booking link below.