The school was founded in 1787. Previously, actors had been educated as personal students of individual actors at the theatre, but it was decided that a school was necessary for a more secure succession of the profession and to teach children in the profession from the start from examples made by the continent. In 1788, it was called The Children's Theatre, teaching children between the ages of 9-14. The school is noted to have performed a play for the king and the royal court. One of the first students known was Lars Hjortsberg, who also performed at this occasion and became one of the stars of Swedish theatre history. The school was re-organised in 1793 by Anne Marie Milan Desguillons and her spouse, two actors from the French Theatre in Bollhuset in Stockholm. The students was often used in small parts by the royal theatre and in student performances. The instructors were often actors from the royal theatre. The quality of the drama school was considered to be one of Europe's greatest and up until 1964 it still featured traditional fencing, ballet-training, plastik, recital- and voice-training and teachings of skilled masking techniques - everything much the same since the 18th Century. The education originally was one year long, but later in the end of the 1910s became two years and later in 1930s extended to three years. In the 1960s, Sweden - as many other countries - was influenced by new theatre traditions; such as method acting and new international thoughts on drama education. The International Theatre Institute arranged several symposia in Europe, which both students and teachers attended and the debate grew. This was also the 1960s and in the early days of the great emerging liberation movement through the world and soon with student revolts all over Europe; it was a time of change in the world of arts and culture, as well as in society in general and in the political debate. The opinion in Sweden was strong to make the acting school a national, non-traditional, independent theatre school governed by the state. The old education and teaching methods were questioned, and it was soon decided by the Swedish government that the school was to be separated from the Royal Dramatic Theatre and become independent. It was the then-managing director of the Royal Dramatic Theatre, Ingmar Bergman, who in 1964 initiated the final decision of separation. However, he later came to regret this decision, bitterly calling it "the most stupid thing I've done in my entire life" as he later felt that the long inherited theatre tradition was completely lost within the Dramaten building. For better or worse can always be debated ; but it's a fact that the students lost contact with the Royal Dramatic Theatre's long tradition, drama history and practising actors. Looking back, many in Sweden now believe that the 1964 separation definitely affected negatively on the quality of theatre training and acting education in the country; a tradition was lost after 1964 and today many feel that the later national drama educational forms just couldn't quite reach the former standards that the Royal Dramatic Theatre's former acting school presented. The last class of Dramatens elevskola was the class of 1967.
