Washington, Tyne and Wear student Matt Plumb performs in the RSC’s Regional School Celebration
July 30, 2008
Some of England’s most promising young actors are headed to Stratford-upon-Avon this summer to form the Royal Shakespeare Company’s first youth ensemble. The ensemble will consist of twenty-two secondary schools students, aged 13-18 years, from nine different regions including Newcastle, Manchester, Oxford, Norfolk and London.
For two and half weeks in August, the students will form an acting company and learn firsthand what it’s like to work in an ensemble theatre environment. The students will train with professional director Aileen Gonzalves to create a short production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The summer session will culminate with a public performance of the play on 22 August in the RSC’s Courtyard Theatre.
Jacqui O’Hanlon, the RSC’s Director of Education, said, “We are delighted to be welcoming this very special group of young people to Stratford to form our very first youth ensemble. We feel they are an incredibly strong company who are going to become wonderful ambassadors for Shakespeare in their schools and regions.”
During their training, the students will be mentored by the RSC acting company including cast members from the current production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The students will also have workshop sessions with guest practitioners such as BBC television and radio presenter Hardeep Singh Koli.
The students were selected for the ensemble from schools involved in the RSC’s Learning and Performance Network. Schools in the network engage in a three-year partnership with the RSC. The partnership creates professional development opportunities for teachers; allows students to explore Shakespeare’s plays and language through performance; and encourages schools to share best practices with other educators.
Earlier this year, the participating schools created a series of productions based on their students’ responses to a Shakespeare play or to a theme from a selection of his plays. With the help of the RSC’s children’s casting director, the ensemble’s twenty-two students were selected from these productions.
Many of the youth ensemble’s members defy stereotypes of secondary school theatre students. O’Hanlon explained, “Often the student we have chosen is not the student the teacher expected us to choose. However, what all of the students have in common is an ability to connect with Shakespeare’s language and stories and an excitement about working on his plays in performance.”
The youth ensemble members come from different backgrounds, different cultures and, in some cases, different countries.
One such member is 17-year-old Benham, an Iranian refugee who arrived in England twelve months ago. Benham is a student at a boys’ school in Middlesex, which has a reputation for being tough. He is still learning English but was able to use that to his advantage. Unlike so many other secondary students, Benham says Shakespeare is no more difficult to learn than the rest of the English language.
Another atypical member of the ensemble is 17-year-old Luke, Benham’s classmate and a native English speaker. He forged a connection to Shakespeare due to the similarities between the themes in “Romeo and Juliet” and the gang culture he experiences every day.
They will be joined by 15-year-old Tapiwa, a recent immigrant to the UK from Zimbabwe now attending a comprehensive school in Oxfordshire. Like Benham, Tapiwa is still learning English. She demonstrated her own theatrical talents by weaving traditional songs from her home county into her school’s performance, which was inspired by “Hamlet.”
Once the summer session ends, the members of the ensemble will become Regional Shakespeare Ambassadors for the RSC. As ambassadors, the students will develop advisory groups in their regions and consult the RSC on a variety of topics that will help to shape the company in the future.
The RSC says the youth ensemble will become a yearly program with a new group of students chosen each summer from the Learning and Performance Network.
Tickets for the Youth Ensemble Production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” are available from the RSC Box Office – 0844 800 1114. Tickets cost £2 per person, or £5 for a family of four people. All income will support the work of the RSC Education Department.
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[...] 9, 2008 “The Prince of Wales met a group of budding young actors today as the Royal Shakespeare Company’s first Youth Ensemble took to the stage.The group, which consists of 21 members aged between 13 and 18, performed [...]