Be not afraid of greatness: Lucy Cuthbertson at Shakespeare's Globe

It's intensely powerful to be part of an audience. The sharing is very exhilarating’ says Lucy Cuthbertson, co-director of education at Shakespeare's Globe, spelling out why it's so important for children to experience live theatre. ‘We're dealing with a generation of children who have a huge amount of screen time. That's their life but it's mostly solitary. Theatre is completely different because you're engaged with other people and you come out buzzing, on a high.’

A key part of theatre is storytelling. That's why Cuthbertson and her colleagues run storytelling events each half term, distilling a play down to its core message with one or two actors. ‘Our Romeo and Juliet, for example, is told by Friar Lawrence, and the audience is involved in lots of what-ifs as we try to de-romanticise suicide and recognise that Romeo and Juliet were just stuck. Let's think about what else they could have done?’ says Cuthbertson, adding that the aim of this is to give the 5- to 12-year-olds (and everyone who comes along with them) ‘agency and ownership of the play with real input.’