In 1971 BBC producer Ron Smedley made an Omnibus programme about using drama with young people. He called the film Three Looms Waiting and it featured the work of Dorothy Heathcote and her student Tom Stabler. What Smedley caught on film was remarkable and made Heathcote’s work famous around the world.

In partnership with Manchester Metropolitan University, mantleoftheexpert.com has started the lengthy process of digitising the Heathcote archive, including many Diplomas, B.Phils, MAs, PhD theses, articles and papers written by Heathcote and her students, as well as a vast library of video material from Professor Heathcote’s remarkable career in teaching spanning over 50 years.

There is a Minke whale with fishing nets tangled round its flukes. The whale is suffering, and is also obstructing shipping lanes. Elsewhere an Elizabethan merchant ship is lying on the seabed off the coast of Aldeburgh. The wreck is finally starting to rot (possibly due to pollution/climate change?) and so must be brought up to the surface before too much damage is done.

A range of animals from traditional tales are taken to the animal centre after suffering various injuries. The issue of their moral and emotional well-being often arises, for is it responsible of the animal centre to release the ‘bad’ animals if they might cause further harm to others in their community?

A fire is sweeping across an island in the centre of a lake. Many rare and endangered animal species are at risk as the fire takes control. In terror, the animals flee to the mountains at one end of the island. The people who live and work on the island – some of whom have been killed in the fire – are also under threat…

Half Moon YPT, Aldgate & Allhallows Barking Exhibitions Foundation
Creative Classrooms was a year long project developed in partnership with four Tower Hamlets primary schools that expressed a desire to explore the possibilities of drama as a cross curricula learning tool and empower their teachers to gain new skills.
It placed drama/theatre practitioners alongside teachers to develop [...]

West Midlands Mantle of the Expert Network presents
A Day with Dorothy Heathcote
Saturday 14 June 2008 - 9.30 – 4.00 - Newman College, Genners Lane, Bartley Green, Birmingham, B32 3NT
Dorothy will take delegates the first steps in a mantle of the expert programme – and show how the system can be used to address a range [...]

A team of expert archaeologists (think Indiana Jones, not the Time Team) are flown to a deserted Caribbean island in search of the buried treasure of Blackbeard, the notorious 18th century pirate. The treasure is well hidden (possibly in a cave deep under the island’s extinct volcano). The team will have to search the entire island and look for clues of pirate activity, whilst being careful to protect themselves from the island’s many dangerous animals.

Join us at Oxford University’s Oriel College from Friday 3 October - Sunday 5 October 2008 for Natd’s annual conference. It’s your chance to work with some of the world’s leading drama teachers. An opportunity to stimulate your mind, refresh your thinking and develop your practice amid glorious surroundings and invigorating company.

A small garden centre has been infested by a ‘plague’ of caterpillars. The caterpillars are eating their way through the plants and will destroy everyone if they are not stopped… Looks like a job for the Problem Solvers!