NT’s plans to axe school tours ‘damaging’ to working class communities

Over 50 leading figures in theatre have signed a letter expressing “profound concern” to the National Theatre )NT) over its plans to completely cut its primary school touring programme, calling the move “devastating” and “deeply damaging to working class communities”.

The letter, published in The Stage, has also been signed by Equity, BECTU and the Musicians’ Union and warns that the cuts will also reduce opportunities for performers, creatives and production staff, amounting to “hundreds of thousands of pounds taken from the pockets of already precarious workers”.

The programme is “an entry point” for people who have not worked with the NT before, “helping to further break down barriers such as class, race and disability”, the letter continues.

Visiting schools across the country, the NT’s primary schools touring programme aims to bring high-quality theatre into priority schools, acting as a “catalyst for drama and creativity in schools nationwide”.

In 2023, the scheme’s Hamlet tour visited more than 100 schools and was seen by more than 7,700 young people. Supported by a series of trusts and foundations, the NT cites the Hearn Foundation as the programme’s principal funder, donating £423,500 in 2023.

The theatre also runs a secondary school touring programme and offers a range of digital educational resources and streamable productions.

The letter says: “Workshops, study packs and screen time on the NT Collection – supportive as they can be – are no replacement for a child’s first live encounter.”

It continues: “These choices are deeply damaging to working-class communities, disappearing transformative experiences for young people in their formative years, who might be inspired to become artists themselves. Working-class representation in theatre is already at a critical point.”

The appeal, which follows a private letter submitted to the NT board in June, highlights the NT’s status as receiving the third largest annual grant from Arts Council England at £16,156,916.

“The taxpaying communities hit by the NT’s cuts have a right to be served by our National Theatre,” says the letter. “The budget for the 2023 Primary Theatre Tour represented a fraction of the NT’s total income of £89 million for the year ending March 31, 2023”.

In response, an NT spokesperson told The Stage that “like every arts organisation in the country, [it has] faced stark choices in the past few years in the face of a sharp, real-term decline in our funding against a backdrop of increased costs that are beyond our control”.

“Despite this challenging financial landscape, we have maintained a wide-reaching programme around the UK, including to areas of low arts engagement, and with a strong focus on schools,” the National’s statement continued.

“We are continuing to explore how we bring productions to primary schools and are currently working in partnership with the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education on a targeted primary schools project, Power of Play, to explore building creativity across the curriculum and inform our future work in primary schools.”