The children of Wayland Class at Uffington Primary School, Oxfordshire have new careers in mind. I understand they are writing letters of application to become the King of Scotland or, in some cases, a professional witch! Here at FTW HQ this gladdens our heart, not because we wish to encourage impossible ambition but because we do want to ignite the flame of imagination. How wonderful then to hear that, after a morning of ‘Macbeth’ (interactive workshop), the children are ‘campaigning’ for their characters, desperate to play the roles again and getting stuck into some serious follow up written work.
This was FINDING THE WILL‘s first visit to this warm and friendly small rural primary school in the pretty village of Uffington in Oxfordshire. As always the children (other than a couple of very well read young people) had little or no knowledge of the play at the beginning of the morning. It didn’t take long though before they were bursting with suggestions for what might happen next and who might be the next person to get the chop! Even the very shyest of children came up with ideas of what might be on the banquet table for the King of Scotland – well who are we to say he wouldn’t have wanted cheese sandwiches alongside champagne?
At this point can I urge you dear Reader, to follow this link – Here you will be treated to some fantastic photographs of the whole morning.
Witches, blood, gore, battles, royalty – what’s not to like? There were some cracking performances and a huge amount to talk about afterwards. Indeed the questions which emanated from the morning’s workshop immediately after were varied and many. What happened to Donalbain? Was the story true? Did Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have any children? Were the witches truthful at all? What happened to Fleance? How did Lady Macbeth die? Are you really an actor? What is your favourite Shakespeare play? Which character do you like playing best? (Clue to the answer to that one is below!)
I want to say a huge thank you to Mrs Sheppard (not least for her fantastic photography – again click here if you haven’t already!) for contacting us and inviting me in to work with her class. It was a huge pleasure for me and, I hope, something we can repeat in the years to come. Also thanks to the head teacher Mrs Bradbury, a self-confessed ‘Shakespeare nut’, with whom it was lovely to spend a couple of minutes (sadly no more time) indulging in our mutual passion! Thank you for allowing your children to have the same opportunity as children in many much larger primary schools. And finally to the children in Wayland Class itself – thank you for entertaining me as well as each other! Take another bow!
In the meantime if anyone is looking for a new leader, you could do worse than head to Wayland Class, Uffington Primary School – I hear there are several applications under way!
