Shakespeare's Half Hours

Background

Ten years ago, twelve of Shakespeare's plays were each abridged to half an hour for the S4C and BBC Wales series 'Shakespeare – The Animated Tales'. Today, nine in ten of the UK's secondary schools still use the Tales as their introduction to the language and plays of Shakespeare for years 7–10 (12–15 year olds).

In 2000, Chris Grace, Director of Animation at S4C and Executive Producer of the Animated Tales launched the Shakespeare Schools Drama Festival. Using the abridged scripts, pupils from eight schools in Pembrokeshire performed to sell-out audiences at the Torch Theatre, Milford Haven. Such was the success of this pilot that the following year the Festival moved to London.

In October 2001, 1800 pupils in years 7–9 from 60 inner-London schools performed condensed versions of Shakespeare's plays in three professional theatres, including the Greenwich Theatre. This film is a record of the experiences of four of the south-east London schools that contributed to the Greenwich event. It shows some of the processes involved in taking their plays from script to stage. In the process, a ringside seat is offered from which to observe a variety of teachers guiding their young performers through auditions, rehearsals and the excitement of public performance.

Each school had only five weeks to cast and produce their play – chosen from the twelve titles in the Animated Shakespeare series. In order to achieve this challenge the teacher-directors spent a day at The Royal Shakespeare Company, while the performers benefited from a half-day in-school drama workshop with the award-winning theatre group Dramarama (see Useful Links).

On the day of their performance the productions were fully supported by the professional stage crew at their allotted theatre – each play receiving both full technical and dress rehearsals.