The study of history has to be vibrant. It is about real people, real dramas, real narrative, real human dilemmas. It is not surprising that, despite manifold structural pressures working against us, take-up for GCSE history is once again buoyant. There are all manner of reasons for this - is it continual improvements in the quality of history teaching? (more history teachers now turn out to conferences, insets, meetings to share and build their skills); is it the growing public interest in history, as manifested on TV? is it livelier, more focused ‘enquiry’ planning in Year 9? is it a new confidence of history teachers in being prepared to find challenge as well as access? It’s hard to tell, but one factor is certainly significant - renewed teacher interest in the role of drama in learning. School History Scene has played no small part in this. About 800 history departments now take pupils to its shows, giving pupils the shared excitement, the thrill of immediacy, the enhanced historical understanding and remarkable retention of knowledge that comes with such close engagement. We, the editors of Teaching History, invited Josh Brooman and Chris Culpin to write this piece. We did so because were keen for yet more pupils to experience both the mindopening and the socialising value of live theatre.