Review: Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank – The Tempest

Director of education Lucy Cuthbertson on the return of Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank, this year with a production of Romeo and Juliet created especially for young people: ‘Here at Shakespeare's Globe, our flagship theatre and education project for secondary schools, Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank, returns with a production of Romeo and Juliet in March. We are planning to produce a gripping 90-minute production set in the present day created especially for young people and designed to support the curriculum. Public performances from 19 March until 13 April run alongside the previously announced schools’ project, supported by Deutsche Bank, as part of their global youth engagement programme ‘Born to Be’. There are over 26,000 free tickets for pupils aged 11-16 at London and Birmingham state schools, with subsidised tickets for schools nationwide and a range of accessible performances including Integrated BSL.

We introduced a new element to the project last year – a curtain raiser competition, to which schools could apply to perform on the Globe Stage. The successful schools were given a scene from The Tempest (the 2023 production), and they had five minutes to present their response piece. Here one of those students describes their experience':

‘Performing a snippet of The Tempest on the Globe stage was by far the best drama experience I have ever had. I was picked to do the project by my teacher – there were quite a lot of people in the cast, so I never imagined being picked to be the main character. The rehearsals were on Mondays and Wednesdays, and we had directors and actors from the Globe Theatre help us practice and go over our lines. Because I have taken part in a few school drama productions, I'm used to the pressure of learning lines in a certain space of time, but either way learning our lines and being taught by professional actors is extremely exciting and fun. Just before we were about to go on stage, everyone was nervous and scared but then we did one last vocal warm up which was called ‘Rubber Chicken’ – as silly and weird as it sounds, it helped calm everyone's nerves and it has also became a tradition in my school before we are about to start a drama production; it just reminds me how big this opportunity is in my life and in everyone else's life. When I first stepped on stage at Shakespeare's Globe, it was exhilarating! I personally have performed Shakespeare plays in different theatres in primary school, but this somehow felt different, it increased my confidence and acting skills, and made me want to become an actor even more. One piece of advice I would give to someone who is taking part in this project is to suppress your fears and to give it your absolute all, expect nothing but amazement and awe.’

shakespearesglobe.com/learn/secondary-schools/playing-shakespeare-withdeutsche-bank