Big Mouth Theatre Franchise: Build a Purpose-Led Children's Drama Business

Big Mouth Theatre sessions are built around connection and creativity - never competition

Big Mouth Theatre is a multi-award-winning children's drama franchise that has been empowering young performers across the South of England since 2013. Built around a deliberately non-competitive philosophy, the brand runs after-school clubs, Saturday workshops and holiday camps that help children under 16 build confidence, express themselves and make friends - all without the toxic audition culture that often turns kids away from drama.

In 2025 the brand was named Family Business of the Year at the Club Hub Awards, chosen from 350 applications. Now, after more than a decade of refining the model, Big Mouth Theatre is opening to franchise partners who want to run a genuinely purposeful business in their local community.

Three Ways Your Franchise Earns

Unlike many children's activity franchises that rely on a single programme, Big Mouth Theatre spans three complementary offerings - giving you multiple revenue streams across weekdays, weekends and school holidays.

Meet the Founders

Your Investment

Beyond the franchise fee, franchisees should allow working capital for staff hiring, venue leasing, insurance and early-stage marketing. Bank funding is typically available because established franchise brands are considered lower-risk propositions.

What's Included

• ✓ The right to operate under the award-winning Big Mouth Theatre brand
• ✓ An exclusive territory with strong demographic growth potential
• ✓ Comprehensive training on activity delivery, business operations and marketing
• ✓ Ongoing head office support and expert guidance from Adrian and Holly's team
• ✓ National marketing presence via the main website and social media
• ✓ In-house customer app for bookings and communication with parents
• ✓ Proven lesson plans, workshop structures and holiday camp curricula
• ✓ Help with recruitment and training of your drama leaders

Why This Franchise Works

Who This Franchise Is For

Big Mouth Theatre is ideal for people who want to run a purposeful business alongside their values. It suits former teachers, drama-trained professionals, career-changers with children of their own, or anyone passionate about children's wellbeing who wants the structure of a proven business model rather than starting from scratch. No prior drama qualifications are needed - the team trains you and helps you recruit qualified drama leaders.

Key Benefits at a Glance

• ✓ Family Business of the Year 2025 - genuine award-winning brand
• ✓ Non-competitive philosophy that parents actively seek out
• ✓ Three revenue streams spanning weekdays, weekends and holidays
• ✓ Exclusive territory and proven in-school marketing model
• ✓ Full training and ongoing founder-led support
• ✓ Recession-resilient children's enrichment category

From One Village School to a National Franchise

Holly Clarkson and Adrian Woolner sketched out Big Mouth Theatre on a Brisbane beach, drawing on their work across drama, education and personal coaching. They returned home, leaned on the Prince's Trust Enterprise Programme for early support, and opened their first after-school club at a New Forest village school in February 2013. Word travelled quickly across the local parent network and additional schools filled within weeks.

By 2014 the model had grown into the Saturday Theatre Programme, where children write, rehearse and stage their own productions with every role shared fairly. A second territory opened in Eastleigh in 2015, and the team navigated the pandemic by moving training online and adding business coaching to its operator support. The 2025 Family Business of the Year win at the Club Hub Awards, chosen from 350 applicants, marked the point at which the founders felt the model was robust enough to license.

Training and Onboarding

You do not need a drama background to run a Big Mouth Theatre franchise. The founders built an onboarding programme that assumes you bring business energy and community ambition, then layers on the brand's pedagogy and operating system. Training covers session planning, child safeguarding, parent communication, recruiting drama leaders, school relationship building, holiday camp logistics and the in-house bookings app. Founder mentoring continues well past launch.

Marketing and In-School Distribution

The most efficient marketing channel in children's enrichment is the school itself. Big Mouth Theatre's growth strategy is built on partnering directly with primary schools across your exclusive territory, which means the school becomes both your venue and your distribution channel. Parents receive trusted recommendations through the school's communications, and the brand's national website, social channels and PR sit on top to drive Saturday workshop and holiday camp bookings. Head office supports launch marketing with templated flyers, social assets, parent evening collateral and a launch playbook that has been refined across the company-owned territories.

A Day in the Life

A franchisee's week follows the school rhythm. Mornings cover school outreach calls, drama leader management, social posting and term-ahead planning. After-school clubs run roughly 3pm to 5pm at one or two schools a day, delivered by your trained drama leaders while you sit alongside as quality lead. Saturdays are workshop days, and school holidays compress into intense multi-day camps that are typically the strongest revenue weeks of the year. It is a portfolio rhythm rather than a nine-to-five, which suits parents and career-changers seeking flexibility around their own families.

UK Market Context

Children's drama sits inside the broader UK enrichment sector, which has just been given a structural tailwind. The Department for Education has announced new enrichment benchmarks across five categories including arts and culture, with Ofsted set to consider how schools meet that expectation during routine inspections. School profiles capturing each school's enrichment offer are being piloted now and roll out fully in 2026/27. For franchisees, this matters in two practical ways: schools have a fresh institutional reason to bring in trusted external arts providers, and parents will increasingly see enrichment access reported alongside academic outcomes.

Who This Suits Best

The strongest Big Mouth Theatre franchisees light up around children and have the patience to run a values-led operation week after week. That often means former teachers, teaching assistants or drama practitioners, but it also includes parents wanting school-hours-friendly work, career-changers seeking purpose alongside profit, and existing children's activity operators adding a creative arts strand. What unites them is the appetite to act as a visible, community-facing leader. If you would happily stand in a school hall on a wet Tuesday watching seven-year-olds invent a new ending to their show, you are likely to thrive.

Interested in exploring more opportunities in this sector? Take a look at other Children franchise opportunities available on Franchise Hunt.