Hello again! Well what a couple of weeks we’ve had. Whilst we were whizzing about the country doing ‘Tempest’ and ‘Macbeth’ workshops, the FINDING THE WILL website was being hacked! Can you believe it? I thought people were only interested in hacking financial sites, or top secret government sites but no, apparently Shakespeare workshops in Primary Schools are also fair game! Anyway thanks to the lovely people at Bloomfield Digital, our whole website has been rebuilt and looks pretty much the same as it always did, so Ha! Ha! Hackers! (Do let us know if you spot any differences or typos that we’ve missed however).
So last week saw us in Sydenham, SE London for three days running interactive workshops on ‘The Tempest’ for Years 1-6 at St Bartholomew’s Primary. We had a lovely time there with some of the best performances within a workshop we’ve ever had. Our Year 6 Ariel had no compunction about leaping around like an excited air sprite should and Prospero came up with rhyming spells off the top of his head with no prompting whatsoever. Brilliant! Judging by this feedback, I think all six year groups had a great time too:
St Bartholomew’s Sydenham Evaluation Form
From there we hurtled up the M11 to Doncaster where we spent a day in an Independent School running ‘Macbeth’ workshops with Years 3 & 5. Then back down the motorway to prepare for a Showcase Event for Hog The Limelight – the Hampshire Rural Touring Scheme. With only twenty minutes to showcase all six shows in the ‘Bard Heads’ collection this took some thinking through. But we did it! So Hampshire, here’s hoping that your warm reception and positive comments bear fruit in the form of bookings for the autumn!
And then finally there is Hugh – the magnificent Hugh Bonneville. If anyone out there caught him on Desert Island Discs last week you’ll know what I mean. He is Patron of The Primary Shakespeare Company which seems to operate in a similar way to us but only in London and only once or twice a year. However Hugh’s passion for primary school aged children learning Shakespeare and being part of a team is so close to our hearts that we have contacted him (through his publicist) to tell him about FINDING THE WILL. Will he respond? Will he come and see our work? Would he ever consider being a FINDING THE WILL Patron (he’d be in good company with Bernard Cribbins)? Watch this space. If we have anything to report on that score, you will be the first to know!
It’s Shakespeare Week next week and we will back with our friends at Anson Primary School in Cricklewood doing ‘Twelfth Night’ with Years 3 & 4. Bound to be lots of tales to tell after that one, so speak to you again soon!
Anson News – Shakespeare Week
