False face must hide what the false heart doth know…
Shakespeare's Globe has announced the cast for their 16th annual Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank production, Macbeth. Providing more than 20,000 free tickets for students aged 11–16 from state secondary schools in London and Birmingham, the production will play exclusively to school groups between 3–30 March, with public performances to be held from 19 March – 16-April.
Eligible schools will also receive free workshops for students, free CPD for teachers, and online resources to support teaching and studying of Shakespeare plays at GCSE and A Level.
‘As young people continue to ask big questions about their future, I can't think of a better play to explore how personal ambition and the abuse of power can corrupt the individual and destroy nations,’ said director Sarah Frankcom. The cast will include Fiston Barek and Hannah Azuonye as the infamous Thane and Lady Macbeth.
Suit the action to the word, the word to the action…
The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) has announced that Michael Morpurgo's Tales From Shakespeare will be streamed for free to UK schools in January and February.
The shows are retellings of ten of Shakespeare's most popular plays, and have been created in association with the RSC for young audiences. Each broadcast features readings by members of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the author.
The four stories to be broadcast are Morpurgo's retelling of Hamlet, Henry V, King Lear and The Taming of the Shrew. They will be available to watch until 6 May.
For further information, or to register your school for a free live broadcast, visit the RSC's website at www.rsc.org.uk/learn or contact schoolsbroadcast@rsc.org.uk
Like a strutting player, whose conceit / Lies in his hamstring, and doth think it rich / To hear the wooden dialogue and sound / ‘Twixt his stretch'd footing and the scaffoldage…
On Saturday 15 January, A Bit Lit launched their new digital learning platform with a two-hour web-event inviting theatre and history lovers aged 14+ to experience ‘A Day Out in Shakespeare's Theatre’.
Hosted by A Bit Lit creator, theatre historian Andy Kesson and Royal Shakespeare Company associate artist Jimmy Tucker, the event began with a lovely flight of fancy between actor Sir Simon Russell Beale and Professor Emma Smith, who described the circumstances in which they might go on a date to an Elizabethan theatre – discussing the way they would get there, what they might do before the show, and some of the sights and sounds they'd expect.
Over the course of the next two and a quarter hours, various academics appeared on screen exploring different aspects of this historical field. The audience had been invited to prepare a variety of objects for their scents, which Holly Dugan took us through – including rosemary (against plague) and an interesting connection between the smell of ground cumin and the human body; while Heather Knight from the Museum of London Archeology department showed with some effective green screen work how similar an indoor Elizabethan theatre like the Curtain was to an ordinary village hall theatre today.
The event was highly accessible, with audio description available throughout and, among other things, a hugely expressive weather report given in BSL by actor Bea Webster. It was also interactive, with the audience invited to participate in a number of polls, leading up to a final section in which improv troupe The Pantaloons invented a short three-act play based on audience suggestions.
As a launch event it was fun, creative, accessible, and well-organised despite a number of technically complicated moving parts, which bodes well for future offerings from A Bit Lit. In the immediate term, those who would like to learn more are invited to join a follow-on course, called ‘How to Make an Elizabethan Theatre’ to take place online and exploring the same ideas in greater depth (See D&T's workshop listings on page 52 for details). A programme of further interactive events and follow-on courses will also be announced soon, including topics such as Black Romance Fiction, The History of Dragons, and Queer Urban Histories.
For more information visit https://abitlit.co