Woodfield is a fantastic school in north London which serves young people aged 11-19 who have complex learning needs. Finding the Will has been fortunate to spend 10 days in this school during 2026 leading workshops on THE TEMPEST, TWELFTH NIGHT, MACBETH and A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM.

In June and July we worked with KS3/4 and 5, many of the students learning two plays with us. MACBETH drew out some visceral emotions especially when the man himself realised the game was up! Shakespeare’s language may have been more poetic, but you could not argue with the sentiment. There is something magical about young people who, frankly, were not remotely interested in a 400 year old play at the beginning of the session, getting caught up in the emotion of the piece.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM also inspired some improvisation from students and practitioners alike. As practitioners, it’s not our job to make anyone feel uncomfortable, so it was absolutely fine by us for students to remain sitting and hold a hat (if they didn’t want to wear it). We filled in playing some of the roles and we even persuaded some of the staff to play fairies and lovers too! A few of the classes had the opportunity to perform in the play within a play – honestly, in 20 years of Finding the Will, we have never had a better Snug the lion! We all genuinely laughed at the tragic comedy! We also had a couple of Pucks who spoke beautifully the final lines of the play after me.

Nick and I led one TWELFTH NIGHT workshop and, although we couldn’t get to the end of the play in the time allotted, we did cover Malvolio’s story. We all agreed that the trick letter (see below) and the fall out, though funny, was tantamount to bullying, so really not good.