Enter stage right

I wanted to create the post of Teacher-in-Residence because I had a lot of contact with theatres and they seemed to have good intentions about being involved with schools but with no real understanding of the way schools worked or the constraints that teachers worked under. Equally, teachers made assumptions about what theatres and theatre participation departments could offer. I wanted to bridge the gap. I also wanted to develop a relationship with a theatre, so that I could have somewhere to go with thoughts, queries and enthusiasms without the prejudices that some theatres seem to have against the work produced and done in schools.

Salisbury Playhouse serves a wide community. Theatres can’t reach all schools directly, but want to be able to engage and aid schools in a range of ways. It’s through me that the Playhouse learns what teachers and schools want from arts organisations, how to provide valuable projects and productions to fit with the curriculum. To start with, my task was to explore how and when it’s best for the Playhouse to communicate with schools. In the second year, ‘curtain raisers’ were introduced, performed by the college at which I am a teacher. This has lead to a new initiative, ‘Playback’, looking at integrating schools with the theatre programme, and in turn fitting the programme in with the syllabus, whilst also allowing performance opportunities at the theatre. In the past 12 months, the theatre’s ‘Beginners, Please’ project has seen 13 primary schools enjoy a creative association with the Playhouse. This September the Playhouse will pilot a new initiative, ‘Company’, in which eight secondary schools will work with the theatre for a year through a series of workshops and events.

Being at the Playhouse has allowed me to tackle a lot of the problems faced by a teacher wanting to collaborate with an arts organisation, and I think that my presence has been useful to the Playhouse, too. It’s wonderful to see projects succeed and be extended out to more and more schools. Equally, my school benefits from close contact with a thriving regional theatre and, despite the distance, the pupils are confident about the Playhouse being their theatre.

I encourage all theatres to find themselves a tame teacher! We don’t need much feeding and we are a useful resource. The need to develop an understanding of the mutual benefits for theatres and schools has never been more relevant; beleaguered as we are on all sides by funding issues and increasing DfE guidelines such as the English Baccalaureate forcing attention on traditional academic subjects. We should stick together and not remain aloof.