Teacher Resources & CPD
Inspired by over a decade of experience as the leading producer of educational workshops in London's West End, we've created a series of free resources and CPD opportunities for teachers!
We've also shared resources by partners and peers for you to enjoy!
Theatre Workout Resources
The following resources have been created by Theatre Workout and provide teachers with information, advice and guidance regarding teaching drama and associated topics.
Don't see what you want? Get in touch and we'll see if we can create what you need.
NGA/ACE Guidance for Governors - Drama
This guide has been developed through collaboration between the National Governance Association, Arts Council England, and written by education consultant Susie Ferguson on behalf of the Theatre Education Forum.
Those who govern champion the right of children and young people to a high quality and wide-ranging education, ensuring their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. This guide offers specific guidance on the teaching of Drama and engagement with Theatre in schools.
Drama & Theatre Manifesto
As a founding member of the Drama & Theatre Education Alliance, Theatre Workout believes every child and young person is entitled to drama and theatre throughout their education.
Making drama and theatre is an essential part of being human. Participating helps us express what we care about, and why, reminding us of who we are and what we can be...
Confidence Booster
Boost your confidence with this free resource based on actor training and performance techniques, designed to help you relax, focus, and perform beyond your expectations.
Disclaimer: Theatre Workout takes no responsibility for any success you achieve by realising your ambitions as the result of completing this confidence booster programme.
Creative Careers
Developed over several years, we regularly update our information on Creative Careers to help teachers prepare their students for the reality of a career as an actor, performer, or otherwise within the performing arts.
Tailored workshops can be created specifically for your students with practical activities and the latest information.
Read our 2021 blog post, along with a Powerpoint Presentation and Loom video which explains it further.
Devising Creative Theatre - Brief Encounter
In celebration of the return of Kneehigh Theatre's BRIEF ENCOUNTER in 2021, we created this new teacher resource to enable teachers to empower their students to create original theatre performance.
This is not an official resource for Kneehigh, just our tribute to their amazing creativity!
Drama for SEND Students
Blog post from our teacher training session delivered at the Music & Drama Education Expo in March 2019, exploring techniques and practical exercises for using drama to engage SEN, SEND and ESL students.
Introduction to Drama
Welcoming a new cohort of students? Starting to teach drama in your class for the first time? Then try out these exercises to kick things off - they're fun, creative and can take you in lots of directions.
Learning Speeches
Top tips on learning speeches from professional actors, plus a few practical exercises you can use to improve memory and your performance!
Planning a School Trip
Download our free report designed to help you plan the perfect theatre visit for your school.
For more support and guidance, we've been organising school trips since 2006, so get in touch.
Princes Foundation for Children and the Arts
Specially commissioned by the Prince's Foundation for Children and the Arts, Theatre Workout's founder and director, Adam Milford, shares some top tips and exercises for using drama in class to build confidence, inspire creativity and develop excellent communication skills.
Stage Combat for Drama Teachers
There are six main groups of stage combat moves:
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Out of distance, on target
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In distance, off target
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Reverse Control
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Contact blows
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Falls and throws
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Armed combat
Theatre Workout outlines the basic principals to stay safe, but for technique and choreography we highly recommend booking a bespoke masterclass!
Teaching Shakespeare
To celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's work in 2016, Theatre Workout has complied a free resource for teachers on teaching Shakespeare in class.
This introductory guide includes techniques actors use when working with Shakespeare, helping to build students confidence, their familiarity with Shakespeare's unique language, and provide teachers with basic drama skills to help inspire and educate students.
Teacher Training Workshops
Drama in the classroom isn't just for drama classes! Using drama can be a valuable resource for any teacher to explore many other subjects, including maths, English, history and business.
If you would like to learn more about using drama in the classroom to complement your teaching technique, or would like to expand your repertoire as a drama teacher, book a teacher training workshop for you and your fellow teachers with Theatre Workout.
Other Resources
The following resources have been created by productions and other organisations, and cover a broad range of shows, topics and activities. Theatre Workout takes no responsibility for the content of these resources, and links were active at the time of publication. These resources may change or be removed at the discretion of those who have created them.
1984
Download a free education pack for the award winning 1984 by Headlong Theatre, an official partner of Theatre Workout.
Actors Of Dionysus - Greek Theatre
Actors of Dionysus (aod) are one of the UK’s leading theatre companies in the field of Ancient Greek drama. Their productions have been seen by over 750,000 people in theatres and arts festivals across the UK and Europe.
To help schools and teachers, aod has made three of their past productions of Lysistrata, Antigone and Medea available to watch online for free. Here’s everything you need to know about how to watch them and support learning in the classroom with their free teaching resources.
The Arts Backpack
Action for Children’s Arts (ACA) has launched the Arts Backpack: a digital rucksack where pirmary school children can collect their Arts, Cultural, Heritage and Library experiences throughout the year, with the goal of collecting at least five experiences.
Still in its infancy, the project is inspired by similar schemes worldwide. It has been proposed to government ministers and Arts Council England as a way to combat the diminishing role that arts subjects play in schools across the UK.
Read more and give it your support here.
Arts in Schools Advocacy Pack
As has been widely publicised by the BBC, Cultural Learning Alliance, Bacc for the Future and others, because of the Department for Education’s school accountability systems, many schools are reducing the numbers of hours, teachers, subjects and choices on offer. This risks strangling the talent pipeline to the creative industries and robbing children of the social mobility and opportunities that the arts offer.
The Cultural Learning Alliance, BACC For The Future Campaign and What Next have published the Arts In Schools Advocacy Pack to help teachers campaign for more arts provision in schools.
BBC Teach
Whether you're at home or at school, you can use BBC Teach for free. Their website is home to thousands of free curriculum-mapped videos, arranged by age-group and subject.
Choreography Online
Canadian choreography marketplace, Choreography Online*, allows users to purchase performance licences for dance routines and other choreographic material. Based around a video search engine, the website enables users to filter choreography via genre, number of performers and difficulty.
The platform was created by Canadian dancer and choreographer Rick Tija to support choreographers by providing additional income and raising professional profiles, while also allowing Performing Arts and Dance teachers to find new material for their students.
*Theatre Workout is not associated with this resource - we just think it could be useful to teachers!
Digital Theatre +
Digital Theatre+ is an online video hub with over 400 productions, unique backstage insights, practitioner interviews and written analysis. Over 2,000 academic institutions use the service in over 80 countries.
Even though there is no substitution for live theatre, the offer allows schools to use the platform as a temporary fix following the cancellation of hundreds of theatre school trips across the UK.
Schools can sign up to the 7-day trial, where they’ll get access to thousands of resources, revision aids and hundreds of productions from world-leading theatre companies.
Drama Notebook
collection of free and paid for resources, scripts, speeches and more for students and teachers alike
Essential Drama
Essential Drama connects secondary drama education, higher education and the theatre industry because it’s all learning and we are all connected.
Resources include essays, engaging posters, teacher packs, interviews and more. Visit, support, receive, grow!
Frantic Assembly
Access free resources by one of the world's leading contemporary theatre companies, Frantic Assembly and see why they're such an inspiration to us.
Costume at the National Theatre
Costume at the National Theatre is a new book exploring what goes into designing and creating the unique costumes seen in National Theatre productions.
The costumes produced by the National Theatre are works of extraordinary detail and craftmanship. As varied as the shows themselves, over 10,000 costume elements are produced every year by the in-house team, transforming visual concepts into vibrant reality. Costume at the National Theatre invites readers inside that creative process, from interpreting designs and crafting costumes in the workrooms to their use once ready for the stage.
National Theatre Collection
UK state-funded schools have access to the National Theatre Collection. The Collection is the new service to replace National Theatre On Demand, which will end in July 2020.
From Shakespeare and Greek tragedy to contemporary literary adaptations, the Collection brings the best of British Theatre to all state-funded schools for free. Teachers get access to high-quality recordings of 30 world-class productions, plus a range of tailored learning resources supporting the primary and secondary curriculum.
Productions are recorded live at the National Theatre and other leading venues giving students the best seats in the house whenever you want.
Productions are accompanied by supporting teaching resources, rehearsal insights and short films. Education packs and resources will aid students’ understanding of play texts and the theatre-making process.
Read more.
Open Drama
Open Drama UK is a platform for teachers, theatre practitioners and industry experts to advance, improve and benefit young people through Drama. They share resources, run webinars, send monthly mailouts and have dozens of networks at county and regional level across the UK.
Phantom of the Opera
Download a free resource pack here to support visits to The Phantom Of The Opera .
The resources is designed to support students attending the Phantom's Lair stage re-set talk, which takes place at Her Majesty's Theatre after the Thursday matinee. See more information on our Hospitality pages.
Scripts and Speeches
Looking for play scripts and speeches for productions and performances coursework? Use these handy resources:
Samuel French: Serving theatre since 1830 as a play publisher, a licensing house and an independent bookseller, Samuel French have thousands of titles in their catalogue including many of the greatest plays in the English language, plus more resources for teachers and students alike.
Playscripts: An independent publisher of new plays and musicals, representing diverse voices, styles, and stories. They license amateur and professional productions, publish standard acting editions, binder books, collections, and eScripts.
Teachers' Toolkit
This toolkit has been created by A New Direction to help you and your school more effectively use and promote the arts and cultural education as a critical component of a balanced, exciting curriculum.
You’ll find basic guidance, Top Tips for success, exercises and activities, and a list of relevant resources for further research and discussion.
Visit A New Direction
The 39 Steps
After a successful 9 year run at the Criterion Theatre, the 39 Steps is now on a UK tour throughout 2016.
Theatre Workout has been commissioned to develop the education pack to support the production which is now available to download.
Get your copy here
UK Parliament
UK Parliament offers a range of free curriculum-based resources to support primary and secondary teaching about Parliament.
Discover whether you can get your travel costs to London subsidised by including an educational visit to Parliament. Click here for more information.
Plays by Black Writers: Stories for This Moment
Concord Theatricals has compiled a range of plays by Black authors that grapple with current themes and the history of the Black community.
To commemorate Juneteenth, they've pulled a selection of these titles, which you can explore on their website.