News Comment

Clegg and Cameron have it easy. Forging a common platform between 20 voluntary drama and theatre associations and young people, is like herding a bag of cats. Five key aspirations have emerged from 18 months of consultations:

• Young people should be entitled to drama lessons and a range of theatre experiences in schools, theatres and other settings.

• More opportunities should be provided for children and young people to deepen and broaden their knowledge, and exposure to drama and theatre.

• The potential of our most talented young theatremakers should be nurtured.

• Developing a world-class workforce in drama and theatre education should be a priority.

• A coherent infrastructure needs to be established to support drama and theatre for children and young people.
 

The good news is that we already have the practice and experience to honour Article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child – “the right to participate fully in cultural and artistic life”.
Despite 50 years of development, making the UK the world leader in drama education, we still need to train more drama teachers – especially in primary schools. We have more than 1000 youth theatres, 250 professional theatre companies, the best actor training in the world, and hundreds of university level courses in drama, theatre and performance. Major producing theatres have education and participation at the heart of their business. But, and there’s always a but, the UK needs a change of culture.
Talking about excellence, innovation, diversity and inclusion may be common, but they are still appropriate words to describe the features of a new creative nation. Our wits and creativity will, at least, help us accept our true position as a dignified European province, where engineers of the imagination dream up better ways to live together on a crowded planet. Drama and theatre are key tools to explore these new realities and new relationships, and to express our natural feelings of fear, aspiration, resentment or hope.
It is often said that the wealthy elite capture most of the public resources for the traditional and non-threatening things they like: opera, dance and a canon of music from the age of European Empires. But it is my feeling that we, who believe in the core values of drama and theatre as being vital to a healthy cultural democracy, must work together to create, promote and deliver the service our young people need. It’s about taking responsibility.