The Shakespeare Schools Festival

The Shakespeare Schools Festival took place in the first week of February, when over 20,000 pupils from 1,100 schools performed Shakespeare in 100 theatres throughout the UK.

A group from Charlton School (Cassie, Chris, Lyndsey, PJ, Ricky, Thomas and Yommi from Royal Hill and Alice, Lee, Miles and Zaanet from the Charlton site) had been rehearsing their 4 language Romeo and Juliet on stage at the Globe Theatre from November to January, and their enthusiasm and self-confidence was such that they learned all the script and were able to lead it all themselves.   The 4 languages were extracts from Shakespeare’s original text, phrases of Arabic and Hebrew, and key signs from British Sign Language.

On Monday 5th February, the group performed their version of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ on stage at the Ashcroft Theatre in Croydon and received tumultuous applause.    Their self-confidence was such that, when we knew that two of the group who had lead speaking parts were not able to come, they simply divided their parts among themselves.  Thanks should go to Marisa, a speech and language therapist from school, who joined the group on stage – and who performed splendidly of course!

We all felt they had done brilliantly, and other people clearly thought so too:  later that week we received an invitation to perform the ‘Romeo and Juliet’ workshop at the Shakespeare Festivals Charity Gala Dinner on Monday March 5th at the Middle Temple Hall.

The present Middle Temple Hall building dates from about 1570, although the Temple records date back almost a thousand years.  It is known that Shakespeare and his group of actors performed in the Middle Temple on several occasions, in particular for the first ever performance of Twelfth Night in January 1602 in the presence of Queen Elizabeth 1. 

So no pressure then!

It is difficult for those of us who were there to describe the power and enthusiasm that they gave to their faultless performance, so it’s easier to describe the audience reaction.  When the final episode was over the group received an incredibly loud and prolonged standing ovation, and this was repeated when Lyndsey took the microphone and said ‘Audience, you’ve been very good, stand up and give yourselves a clap!  And so they did.

Later that week the school received a message from Chris Grace, the director of the Shakespeare Schools Festival.  He wrote:  ‘Thank you for one of the most memorable theatre performances of my life – and in many people’s lives going by the standing ovation.  We made 25K for the Charity and I have no doubt much of that is due to you.  Thank you!’