MED Theatre’s education programme prides itself on taking inspiration for creative work from our local surroundings, the Dartmoor National Park, which we believe provides a rich palette for young people to learn from. One young person commented
“I love MED… it’s a lifechanger.”
Our Education Manager Abby Stobart and Education Officer Helen Gilbert can be contacted at education@medtheatre.co.uk or on 01647 441356.
For information on schools visits, workshops and other opportunities, take a look at…
From the 1990s MED started to work in school settings, taking Artistic Director Mark Beeson’s passion for playwriting into Moretonhampstead Primary School and encouraging pupils to write their own plays. In 1993 an Arts Council grant was secured to assist young people in playwriting and in 1994 a group of young members wrote part of the community production ‘The Dragon and the Mermaid’ for MED Theatre. Other early young people’s productions included five plays featured on Radio Devon in 1995, ‘The Audience’ in 1999 and The 82 in 2000-1.
The new millennium sealed the place of young people’s projects at MED and a steady stream of innovative stage, radio and film productions followed, integrating drama, visual art, dance and music. Key projects during this period included ‘Dartmoor Rising’ and ‘Grave Intimations’.
In 2004 MED Theatre’s young company ‘Wild Nights’ was established. The young company prides itself on creating innovative, locally relevant projects, such as ‘The Children’s Castle’, ‘The War Prison at Princetown’, ‘John Ford on Dartmoor’, ‘Dartmoor in World War I’ and ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles and the Last Wolf on Dartmoor’. (For information on our young company and other drama clubs, please visit our Drama groups page).
Since 2006, the introduction of the role of Education Officer has continued the expansion of both the in-school and out-of-school education programme. Our current Education Officer is Helen Gilbert. In 2017, with an increasing workload involving young people’s projects, it was decided to create the role of Education Manager to direct our education strategy. Our current Education Manager is Abby Stobart.
