Now in its 18th year, and growing in strength year on year, this charity works with youngsters all over the UK from every walk of life, all children, no-one is excluded, and all gain invaluable life skills from the experience, from confidence building, team work, speaking, etc, as well as a basic understanding of acting and how theatre works.
I first came across this event two years ago, and now try and make sure I see at least one evening each year. The Festival is spread over a couple of weeks in November and there are hundreds of performances happening across the country in theatres and arts centres simultaneously. Make no mistake, The Schools Shakespeare Festival is a major event in the Theatre-In-Education calendar, and with its policy of all-inclusiveness it provides those who would otherwise be excluded from such activities to work alongside other children and this must be something quite special for teachers, parents and children alike.
The school is assigned a Coordinator who will then help the teachers decide which play to perform, and then the teacher who will be directing the play is given some help and training themselves by theatre professionals. The children are then also workshopped with the assigned actor / actress, before handing things back over to the teacher and watching the students grow. The groups then have a dress and tech rehearsal in the venue prior to the evening's performance. The process can start a early as the beginning of the school year and so sometimes these productions are over 12 months' in the planning and rehearsing.
This evening - the only evening I had free this year! - I went along to Manchester's Z-Arts Theatre, a theatre which is ideal for these events since it is Manchester's premier children's and young people's venue. This evening there were three schools performing and it was an evening of bloody murder and tragedy and bloodthirsty children were seen killing each other in every scene!! Each performance lasts approximately 30 minutes.
First we watched Our Lady's RC Primary School perform Romeo And Juliet. Their use of narration to move the story forward and for their ease of understanding was a lovely idea, but they still kept in much of the original Shakespeare dialogue too. Using black costumes with just a different coloured neck-scarf to denote Montague, Capulet, or other was simple but striking and worked excellently. After this came Cardinal Langley's RC High School's MacBeth. Again, basic black costumes were favoured, but it was the use of music in this play which really helped to move the story along. A plaintive MacBeth being pushed into his destiny by a screaming and ambitious wife and three dancing weird sisters. Finally it was time for the third and final tragedy of the evening, Othello, performed by Beaumont Collegiate Academy. This time it was dance / choreography which was the most surprising and compelling element in this story. Dressed all in quasi-military garb with the principals having their names emblazoned on the fronts of their t-shirts, the contemporary dance feel to the whole play was a very interesting interpretation, and I liked the idea very much.
These cut-down versions of the plays are superb introductions to the story for those who are unfamiliar with Shakespeare's oeuvre, and if, like me, you know the story's well, it is surprising how clear and clinical the storylines are when performed in their barest form like these.
More information about The Shakespeare Schools Festival can be found on their website www.shakespeareschools.org
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 13/11/18
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