mezze eade (Creative Engagement Practitioner), and Romana Flello (Participation Manager, Royal Court), are leading on the London Theatre Consortium project, Representation in Drama (RinD).
The RinD project aims to address systemic imbalances in KS3, GCSE and A level drama, and support intersectional anti-racism work happening in UK schools, theatres and theatre companies. RinD promotes the study, directing and programming of plays by writers from the global majority* . The project will support schools, theatre and youth companies to embed anti-racism pedagogy in their practice, build the skills and confidence in teachers, facilitators and practitioners to teach and direct texts which represent the lived experience of their students and young people, and prepare young people to engage empathetically with Britain’s rich society of heritages and ethnicities.
So far we have led several workshops on Anti - Racist practice in Arts Education with various national networks of teachers and participatory arts practitioners. We have also been working alongside exam board Pearson Edexcel, who is releasing four new set texts by global majority playwrights for teaching from September 2021, to create resources and CPD to support teachers to choose these texts. We have more exciting collaborations and plans to ensure representation across the curriculum, of which we will keep you informed.
To make sure the work we are creating is as useful as possible, and ensure all voices are able to feed in and feedback, we are keen to have continuous dialogue with teachers, young people and arts practitioners throughout. At this stage, we would be hugely grateful if you could share this initial consultation survey with your teacher networks so that we can gather as much data and testimony as possible from across the country. We feel it is essential this work reaches and happens in every school across the UK.
docs.google.com
* Global majority includes, but is not limited to, artists of African, North African, South Asian, South East Asian, East Asian, Caribbean, Latinx, Middle Eastern, Native American, Native Australian, Pacific Islanders, Roma and Traveller heritage or diaspora, and refers to people who have experienced racism due to the colour of their skin. We do not want to lump individuals into one category and try to be specific when talking about individuals and communities.
Thank you for your support and partnership and we look forward to working with you further.
Best wishes,
Romana and mezze
Romana Flello
Participation Manager
Royal Court Theatre