Leading Industry Figures Come Together To Advocate For The Importance Of Teaching In The Arts

Leading figures from the dramatic writing industry are coming together on May 9th at the Bush Theatre to advocate for the importance of improving teaching in the arts.

The event is taking place as part of the final stage for "The Student Guide to Writing: Playwriting", a competition run in 2016 by the Bush Theatre, MA Dramatic Writing at Drama Centre London at Central Saint Martins, Oberon Books and Writers at Work Productions.

The competition provided access for the first time to the leading training coming out playwriting industry training programmes, providing step by step lesson plans on how to write a play from industry leaders such as John Yorke, who created the BBC Writers Academy, Ola Animashawun, who created The Royal Court Theatre's young writers programme, and Fin Kennedy, Artistic Director of Tamasha Theatre Company who created Schoolwrights.

The lesson plans can be used by teachers or followed by students and writers on their own and are the first time many of the industry leaders have ever published their advice.

Speakers on the importance of improving teaching in the arts will include Stewart Pringle, Associate Dramaturg at the Bush Theatre, George Spender, Senior Editor at Oberon Books and Jennifer Tuckett, Course Leader of the MA Dramatic Writing at Drama Centre London at Central Saint Martins and Director of Writers at Work Productions, plus various contributors from The Student Guide to Writing competition.

Jennifer Tuckett, Director of The Student Guide to Writing said: "Very few university lecturers in creative writing have received subject specific teacher training. Similarly, the amount of time spent on specialist subjects in PGCE training is falling. The House of Lords is also currently running an investigation into the gap between education and the skills needed in the creative industries. We hope the lesson plans will help teachers to access playwriting teaching from those leading the way in the industry for use in their own classes - access which has never been provided before as the training on industry writing programmes has never been published before - and that the event on May 9th will be a chance to reflect on how we can improve teaching and why teaching is important in the arts."

Ola Animashawun, founder of The Royal Court Theatre's young writers' programme: "Craft, diversity and well told stories from a vast range of perspectives, experiences and individual voices capturing what it means to be human - these are my passions. Hence, The Student Guide to Writing felt like a great match. The more people we can inspire to add their voice to the canon, the more we increase the chances of creating a more open, enlightened, incisive, insightful and equitable world for us all to play a part in."

Madani Younis, Artistic Director of the Bush Theatre: "At the Bush we work to inspire and develop playwrights from a diverse range of backgrounds and this is central to our ethos as a new writing theatre. The beauty of this competition is its reach and focus on demystifying playwriting craft."

The event is part of a new campaign to increase access and diversity in the writing industry being run by the MA Dramatic Writing at Drama Centre London at Central Saint Martins, which also includes London Writers' Week, University Women in the Arts, and a petition to reinstate the A Level in Creative Writing. The campaign is inspired by the closure of the A Level in Creative Writing, EBACC not including creative subjects, PGCE training spending less time on specialist subjects such as the arts, and the gap between education and the skills needed in the creative industries, which is currently being investigated by the House of Lords, all of which are decreasing access and diversity in the writing industry.

Free tickets to the event can be booked at: https://www.bushtheatre.co.uk/event/the-student-guide-to-writing-playwriting-book-launch-and-play-reading/.

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