Shakespeare for Schools
Categories: Press Releases Archive
The Shakespeare Schools Festival (SSF) is the UK’s largest youth drama project, allowing thousands of young people and hundreds of teachers to perform and direct abridged Shakespeare plays in professional theatres every year.
New College’s production for 2010 is ‘ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA’, a compelling look at lives destroyed when desire and duty collide. Against the backdrop of two very different worlds, Rome and Egypt, Mark Antony, one of the three powerful rulers of the known world, loses everything in his pursuit of love and passion, as he falls under the spell of the enticing Egyptian queen, Cleopatra.
One of the exciting aspects of this festival is the opportunity to perform an abridged Shakespearean text as part of a group of four schools and colleges, in a professional venue. The collaboration with the National Theatre gives the students an inspiring workshop with professional performers, and the excitement of telling this complex but captivating tragedy in half an hour as a part of an international celebration of Shakespeare’s work.
Curriculum Area Leader, Performing Arts, Mandy Parker says:
“We are incredibly excited to be participating in the Shakespeare Schools Festival and I am really impressed in the way that this talented cast have embraced a very difficult text and brought it to life. Understanding the language and the world of the play has been a real challenge, and they have risen to it with enthusiasm and skill. Rehearsals have been hard work, but often great fun, with some very memorable moments, and I think our audience are in for a fantastic evening of theatre.”
New College students will be performing Antony and Cleopatra at The Artrix, Bromsgrove on Thursday 4th November 2010 at 7pm.
Tickets are available from the Theatre Box Office on 01527 577330.
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Notes to Editors:
- Contact Details for New College Telford: Claire Payne, Marketing Manager on 01952 641892 or email clairep@nct.ac.uk. Alternatively, Mandy Parker on mandyp@nct.ac.uk
- See www.ssf.uk.com for further information about the charity (registered number: 1087596)
- The press are encouraged to attend – please contact SSF for tickets, camera access and to arrange interviews with student performers, teachers and SSF staff. Interviews can be arranged at the Cast Workshop in the theatre which pre-dates the Performance.
- SSF is the UK’s largest youth drama project. In 2010 over 13,000 students from 658 schools will perform half hour abridged Shakespeare plays in 80 professional theatres across the country
- Since the Millennium, the charity has provided the logistical and financial support to enable 90,000 young people from 4,428 schools to perform in 250 theatres
- The Festival was started in 2000 by Chris Grace MBE, the former Director of Animation at S4C, using scripts from the Emmy-Award winning S4C/BBC series Shakespeare – The Animated Tales. The plays have since been re-abridged for the stage by BAFTA award-winning script-writers Penelope Middelboe and Martin Lamb. Sir Tom Stoppard (The Merchant of Venice), Sir Arnold Wesker (Henry V and Much Ado About Nothing) and Jamila Gavin (Measure for Measure) have added abridgements of additional plays, bringing the total on offer to 18
- SSF is partnered by the National Theatre and National Youth Theatre who run workshops for the teacher and young people involved
- SSF patrons are: Kevin Spacey, Dame Judi Dench, Kwame Kwei-Armah, Sir Tom Stoppard, Sir Arnold Wesker, Nicholas Hytner, Phillip Pullman, Jamila Gavin, Lord Puttnam and Jenny Agutter
- The Board of Trustees comprises: Chair Rupert Pennant-Rea, Sir Malcolm Field, Andrew Jackson, Dame Jenny Abramsky, Neil Mendoza
- Edexcel and AQA recommend SSF as an excellent introduction for GCSE students studying Shakespeare and the charity also contributes to Teach First’s Intensive Training for English Teachers.
- The Festival is sponsored by Telereal Trillium and The Transformation Trust