In this blog post, ND patron Jane Thornton MBE discusses the necessity of better preparing young people for the challenges of the theatre industry. She emphasises the significance of diverse opportunities, hard work and tenacity in achieving success.
Geoff Readman, Chair of ND, presenting at the House of Lords National Drama was invited to The House of Lords’ enquiry into Secondary Education on 11 May 2023 (Thursday). A paper presenting the case for Drama was prepared and can be downloaded here View the video recording of the enquiry here
Context for this Statement A New Direction is a review of The Arts in Schools report marking the 40th anniversary of the Gulbenkian Foundation’s first publication. When The Arts in Schools report was published, it was extremely well received. Many local education authorities and their arts advisers adopted it as policy and conferences were organised for teachers, across …
National Drama’s Response to the Arts in Schools Review Read More »
Notes on Authors Jonathan Barnes is a National Teaching Fellow and Visiting Senior Research Fellow at Canterbury Christ Church University. He has taught at every level of education in Africa and Asia and England. He now researches, lectures and writes on values, diversity and an inclusive curriculum for creativity, understanding and emotional engagement. James D. …
Editor in Chief
Chris Lawrence
A collection of incisive investigations into the ways that 21st-century British theatre works with – and through – crisis. It pays particular attention to the way in which writers and practitioners consider the ethical and social challenges of crisis.
Anchored in an interdisciplinary approach that draws from sociology, cultural theory, feminism, performance and philosophy, the book brings multi-faceted ideas into dialogue with the diverse aesthetics, practices and themes of a range of theatrical work produced in Britain since 2005.
Inclusivity and Equality in Performance Training focuses on neuro and physical difference and dis/ability in the teaching of performance and associated studies. It offers 19 practitioners’ research-based teaching strategies, aimed to enhance equality of opportunity and individual abilities in performance education.
Challenging ableist models of teaching, the 16 chapters address the barriers that can undermine those with dis/ability or difference, highlighting how equality of opportunity can increase innovation and enrich the creative work.
‘The course of true love never did run smooth’ – so says Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and for more than 2000 years the problems faced by young men and women fighting to find and keep an appropriate sexual partner have been a theatrical staple. This book explores the shapes that Romantic Comedy has assumed from Greek New Comedy via Shakespeare to the present. Changing social values have helped to redefine the genre’s traditional hetero-normativity, while the recent trend towards more fluid casting has opened up many romantic comedies to radical reinterpretations.
Identity, Culture, and the Science Performance, Volume 1: From the Lab to the Streets is the first of two volumes dedicated to the diverse sociocultural work of science-oriented performance. A dynamic volume of scholarly essays, interviews with scientists and artists, and creative entries, it examines explicitly public-facing science performances that operate within and for specialist and non-specialist populations.
This is the first book to examine how the concept and disagreements around post-truth have been explored in the world of theater and performance. It covers a wide spectrum of manifestations and expressions-from the plays of Caryl Churchill, Anne Washburn, and David Henry Hwang, to the inherent theatricality of press conferences, FBI interviews and protests that embrace the confusion created by post-truth rhetoric to muddy issues and deflect blame, to theatrical performance, where the nature of truth is challenged through staged visuals which run counter to what the audience hears, provoking a debate about where the truth actually lies.
