Drama & Theatre Education Alliance | DTEA | Drama Education

An alliance of UK associations working in drama and theatre with, for and by children and young people.

Advocating for raising the status of Drama in schools & of access to live theatre experiences for young audiences.

About Us

The DTEA is an alliance of UK associations working in drama and theatre with, for and by children and young people. Our collective membership includes thousands of individuals, theatres, businesses, schools and universities across the UK.

Our Mission

The three key objectives of the Alliance are:

The inclusion in the curriculum of Drama as a Foundation Subject in the National Curriculum with the same status as Art and Music;
The entitlement of every child to at least one annual engagement with professional theatre.
A drama curriculum and theatre repertoire that is more representative of the UK's diverse population.

The unprecedented challenges all involved with drama and theatre for children and young people in recent decades led to the coming together of multiple individuals and organisations to launch of the Drama, Theatre and Young People’s Manifesto in 2019, and the subsequent establishment of the Alliance in 2020.

About us

Since 2020...

COVID 19 and the Black Lives Matter movement have further sharpened focus on the risks to children’s health and wellbeing when they have limited access to creative learning. Sadly, the opportunities which do exist are not equally available to all sectors of society.

We believe that Drama and Theatre needs presence throughout the education system and that the case has never been stronger!

The decline in drama and theatre provision has steadily been growing for over decades.
Drama has been increasingly marginalised in schools.
Theatre education departments have been cut.
The numbers of applications for drama teacher training and drama and theatre degree courses have been in sharp decline.

Only by investing in drama and theatre in education now can we overcome the effects of the pandemic and secure the thriving theatre industry of the future.