A Midsummer Night’s Dream - Finding the Will

It’s Not Just about Acting

There are many unsung heroes in a production at whatever level. At St Botolph’s Primary, Peterborough in 2024, some fabulous props were created including a quite spectacular severed head of MACBETH! Check out these posters and programmes too, not to mention the backdrop!

Exploring Shakespeare in Oman

We were thrilled to be given the opportunity to be part of the Play Your Dream – Exploring Shakespeare Project at the The Royal Opera House, Muscat in early 2024. Whilst we are known for weaving our magic nationally here in the UK, it was a huge thrill to be asked to share our work internationally. At the end of 2023 we were approached to run workshops for children on A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM in the run up to performances of Benjamin Britten’s opera. What an honour! Just look where we finished up! Both Richard and I were amazed by the confidence, vocabulary, enthusiasm and general joie de vivre of all of the children we met. In total we worked with approximately 200 children over the three days. They ranged in age from 6 – 12 and were from a variety of backgrounds. One workshop was purely for children who were home-schooled. With only 5 children taking part in this one, we roped in their mums to play Oberon, Titania and Puck, whilst Richard and I covered Theseus, Hippolyta and Egeus. In all honesty, the adults in the room, in every workshop we ran, were as engaged as the children. Completely drawn into the magic of the story!

Hats Off to KS4!

Southlands School is a small and friendly Special School in North Shields. Our Interactive Workshops with KS4 on A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM were great fun! Bearing in mind that our usual identifying costumes are made to fit primary school children, we thought outside the box and took a selection of hats. These proved a great success and also inspired some amazing performances. Helena in Year 10 took on a real ‘diva’ personality – inspired! The staff at this lovely school also got involved playing the roles of Oberon and Titania in one workshop. There’s something really rather wonderful about seeing students and their teachers getting stuck in and discovering a story together. A dream? No, just beautiful reality in North Shields! “Just wanted to say a huge thank you for your wonderful work today at Southlands – we all thoroughly enjoyed your workshops and thought you were amazing. We would love to have you back….” KS4 Teacher – A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM Interactive Workshops

What Do You Call an Elephant in a Phone Box?

Stuck!! Thank you to Trinculo in Year 8 for this! He had some cracking jokes to keep King Alonso happy before THE TEMPEST ruined everyone’s voyage! St Dominic’s School near Godalming is a caring and inspiring special school in an amazing location. Nick and I were delighted to spend a day with Years 7 and 8 working on A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM and THE TEMPEST respectively. In SEND schools, we make the workshops bespoke. Time is often more limited and we change the actors at regular intervals. In fact, during A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, some of the teachers became actors – an extra thrill for the students watching the staff fall in and out of love at the squeeze of a purple flower! There were some cracking performances from students too, some of whom took on more than one role. It’s so rewarding watching young people blossom before your very eyes. After the tempest raged and we landed on Prospero’s island, our cast was joined by a couple of toys playing Ariel and Miranda. It certainly made it more comfortable to give Miranda a hug! And Trinculo just kept the jokes coming…….oh alright, here’s another: Man gives up chocolate to become a magician. “I have a few Twix up my sleeve!” Trinculo – St Dominic’s School

A Successful Royal Banquet – the #1 Secret….

When next you’re planning a banquet, consider sushi and lemonade as your star attraction. It certainly satisfied King Macbeth and his Queen in Birmingham .

How To Get Revenge (in 4 easy recipes)!

Revenge! We all know it’s a dish best served cold. However, Year 5 at St Michael’s Junior, Chelmsford – with whom we worked in January – has taken Malvolio’s Revenge to a whole new level! I was delighted to receive in the post a package of truly amazing pieces of work off the back of our Interactive TWELFTH NIGHT Workshops, and I felt I couldn’t simply file them away. It was difficult to pick just four of the extraordinary Recipes for Revenge because they were all so good. So dip into this short video for a taste of what it’s like to be 9 or 10 with revenge on your mind….. Huge thanks to Mrs Orton and Mr Archer for sharing this incredible work with me. St Botolph’s C of E Primary, Peterborough Honestly, you go years without a doing a TWELFTH NIGHT workshop and then 9 come along at once! After the 5 that we ran in January, 4 more came along in February starting with 2 at St Botolph’s C of E Primary in Peterborough to kick off a Project Week. And revenge was still on the menu! We are lucky enough to visit this lovely school every two years, each time bringing a different Project Week for Years 5&6 to get stuck into. From the tragedy of MACBETH 2 years ago, to the craziness of TWELFTH NIGHT, this really was the sublime to the ridiculous! As always, Fay and I began the week with the Interactive Workshop. To add to your collection of potential chat up lines (see last month’s blog for more sure fire hits!) I give you: “Your eyes are like fireworks!” And if that doesn’t float your boat, hang fire, there are more coming later! Following the workshops, we launched into 3 days of rehearsals before putting it all together on Friday morning. It’s always a little fraught when all 120 actors gather in the hall for the first time. There’s the handing out of props and ensuring everyone has all that they need. And then there are the unexpected absences…..It’s really disappointing for the actors when illness strikes and, after all their work, they are unable to be in school. This time we lost two Sir Toby Belches (too much cakes and ale?). However, some brave souls stepped into the breach and took over at the eleventh hour. That’s the joy of this work, it’s not all about Shakespeare, it’s more about teamwork, focus and raising levels of confidence and self-esteem. There were some terrific performances too. From a lounging, yellow-stockinged Malvolio and a stylish, frankly frightening, Lady Olivia, to servants and sailors who were always reliable and solid, the final performance was all we could have wished for. So take another bow Years 5 & 6 and travel safely on as Shakespeare Ambassadors. Huge thanks to Mr Joyce (our in-house DJ, to whom Fay and I are indebted), plus Miss Pickard and the Friends of St Botolph’s, without whom the week would not have been possible. Shellingford Primary, Oxfordshire I was last at Shellingford Primary two years ago, so it was a delight to be invited back. This is a small rural school where the mixed classes meant I could take the whole of KS2 through TWELFTH NIGHT in two workshops last week. The school does not shy away from Shakespeare as KS1 focuses on A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM and KS2 on MACBETH. So it was great fun to introduce them to this ‘unknown’ romp! The darker side of the play – the revenge on Malvolio for spoiling Sir Toby’s party which tips over into bullying – provoked some thoughtful discussion (to be continued in class possibly). Whilst initially we all thought it was hilarious and what he deserved, on further exploration, we concluded that perhaps it was a bit much. “He only spoiled a party after all”. The trouble is that once the Revenge truck is rolling, it just keeps gathering momentum. So when Malvolio yells at the end “I’ll be revenged on the whole pack of you!”, you find yourself secretly hoping that he does. With the question of how Malvolio might get his revenge ringing in their ears, one young imaginative mind suggested to me that Malvolio could murder Maria. I feel a sequel coming on – TWELFTH NIGHT 2 or perhaps THIRTEENTH NIGHT……. Finally, a couple more suggestions for your little book of useful chat up lines courtesy of Classes 3&4: “Your eyes sparkle like the sun” or “Your eyes are like pools of chocolate” (not bad eh?) Enormous thanks to Mrs Roberts and Mrs Ashdown for liaising with me – hope to see you again in another couple of years! Looking forward… Onward into March then and we are Essex-bound once more. Nick and I are heading back to Chelmsford to visit a school new to Finding the Will – St Cedd’s. We’ll be leading workshops on THE TEMPEST and A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM there. Later in the month I am revisiting St Catherine of Siena Catholic Primary in Birmingham to lead Years 5&6 through A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM and MACBETH. So, a bit more revenge to play out in both locations but, as we all know, revenge makes the best drama! I’ll let you know what the Whirligig of Time brings in, next month!