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| Curtains for the drama GCSE? That would be a tragedy | Curtains for the drama GCSE? That would be a tragedy |
| (5 months later) | |
| There's a wonderful moment in Timberlake Wertenbaker's Our Country's Good, about a group of convicts and officers staging a production of The Recruiting Officer in New South Wales in the 1780s, when one of the female convicts simply says with a passion: "I love this." Those three little words sing loudly to the transforming power of art and of theatre in particular, and of the immense value of taking part. | There's a wonderful moment in Timberlake Wertenbaker's Our Country's Good, about a group of convicts and officers staging a production of The Recruiting Officer in New South Wales in the 1780s, when one of the female convicts simply says with a passion: "I love this." Those three little words sing loudly to the transforming power of art and of theatre in particular, and of the immense value of taking part. |
| I heard them echoed a few years ago at a school I visited where I watched a rehearsal for Romeo and Juliet. The young student playing Romeo was really terrific, bringing the character vividly to life. I briefly spoke to him afterwards. "I just love this," he said, his eyes shining and it made me smile because it reminded me of Wertenbaker's play. His teacher told me that it was only through studying drama GCSE that the boy had come out of his shell, and that he now had ambitions to go on to drama school. I hope he made it. | |
| I thought about that boy reading the comments from Paul Roseby of the National Youth Theatre who was reported in the Stage as having dismissed drama GCSE as irrelevant. Try telling that to the boys like the one I saw rehearsing Romeo. Try telling that to many of this country's amazing drama teachers who see the evidence every day of children who suddenly blossom in drama lessons. Try telling that to the numerous playwrights and directors, stage managers, lighting technicians, designers and actors who would never have entered the profession if it was not for the eye-opening, life-changing chance to take a drama GCSE. As I've written before, behind most great actors is a great drama teacher. | I thought about that boy reading the comments from Paul Roseby of the National Youth Theatre who was reported in the Stage as having dismissed drama GCSE as irrelevant. Try telling that to the boys like the one I saw rehearsing Romeo. Try telling that to many of this country's amazing drama teachers who see the evidence every day of children who suddenly blossom in drama lessons. Try telling that to the numerous playwrights and directors, stage managers, lighting technicians, designers and actors who would never have entered the profession if it was not for the eye-opening, life-changing chance to take a drama GCSE. As I've written before, behind most great actors is a great drama teacher. |
| Even those who have no ambitions to enter the profession often discover through the drama GCSE that there is a real difference between performing and seeing a performance and simply studying a play as a text in the classroom. The skills learned are transferable. Drama GCSE is not seen as irrelevant by thousands of employers who have discovered that a school leaver who has taken the qualification is likely to know how to communicate and also work as part of a team and can think creatively. | Even those who have no ambitions to enter the profession often discover through the drama GCSE that there is a real difference between performing and seeing a performance and simply studying a play as a text in the classroom. The skills learned are transferable. Drama GCSE is not seen as irrelevant by thousands of employers who have discovered that a school leaver who has taken the qualification is likely to know how to communicate and also work as part of a team and can think creatively. |
| To give him his due, I'm not sure that Roseby, who seems to have a gift for putting his foot in his mouth, and who was previously reported as saying that drama school is a waste of money, really meant quite what he was reported as saying. I suspect that what he is really trying to argue is that drama can be used throughout the entire curriculum in useful and creative ways. Neither should it just be seen as a qualification. I'm with him on that. There is a huge value in doing something for the sake of it, not just because it gives you a piece of paper at the end of it. | To give him his due, I'm not sure that Roseby, who seems to have a gift for putting his foot in his mouth, and who was previously reported as saying that drama school is a waste of money, really meant quite what he was reported as saying. I suspect that what he is really trying to argue is that drama can be used throughout the entire curriculum in useful and creative ways. Neither should it just be seen as a qualification. I'm with him on that. There is a huge value in doing something for the sake of it, not just because it gives you a piece of paper at the end of it. |
| But drama shouldn't simply be relegated to a position where its only value is seen as being in the service of other subjects which are viewed as core to the curriculum. Roseby's comments are particularly unhelpful at a time when all arts subjects are under siege in secondary schools and are even being squeezed out of primary schools. We have some of the world's most passionate, talented and skilled drama teachers and many of them have to fight to defend their subject's corner and protect the creativity of their students every single day. What will happen to them if drama GCSE disappears? | But drama shouldn't simply be relegated to a position where its only value is seen as being in the service of other subjects which are viewed as core to the curriculum. Roseby's comments are particularly unhelpful at a time when all arts subjects are under siege in secondary schools and are even being squeezed out of primary schools. We have some of the world's most passionate, talented and skilled drama teachers and many of them have to fight to defend their subject's corner and protect the creativity of their students every single day. What will happen to them if drama GCSE disappears? |
| I've even been told by teachers who work at academies with arts status of the constant battle to keep theatre and dance as central activities that are valued for what they bring to the whole school community and not just to those who pursue them. Without a protected place in the curriculum, drama in state schools increasingly faces being pushed into an extra-curricular activity, something that children must do in their own time – and often pay for – leading to the kind of cultural apartheid that means only those from well-heeled backgrounds get a chance to experience the arts and take part in them. | I've even been told by teachers who work at academies with arts status of the constant battle to keep theatre and dance as central activities that are valued for what they bring to the whole school community and not just to those who pursue them. Without a protected place in the curriculum, drama in state schools increasingly faces being pushed into an extra-curricular activity, something that children must do in their own time – and often pay for – leading to the kind of cultural apartheid that means only those from well-heeled backgrounds get a chance to experience the arts and take part in them. |
| Roseby is simply playing into the hands of people, including members of the current government, who mistakenly see drama GCSE as a soft subject, and dismiss it as not having the importance of science, maths, English and other subjects. But our children's creativity also needs to be nurtured and valued, and it's more important than ever that everyone in theatre works with drama teachers, not against them. | Roseby is simply playing into the hands of people, including members of the current government, who mistakenly see drama GCSE as a soft subject, and dismiss it as not having the importance of science, maths, English and other subjects. But our children's creativity also needs to be nurtured and valued, and it's more important than ever that everyone in theatre works with drama teachers, not against them. |