Celebrate Shakespeare in your school with an interactive drama-based workshop from As Creatives! available to schools throughout the UK and beyond. Teacher CPD workshops also available! 

Our passion for Shakespeare shines through in our exciting and highly participatory workshops - suitable even for very young children (suitable for EYFS - KS4 / P1 - S5). And, lending pupils our “actor’s eye view” of the plays, our workshops see them up on their feet, telling the story of your chosen play themselves, through a series of carefully structured drama activities. Never afraid to dive into the original text, we explore the backstories of Shakespeare’s characters, how those characters drive his plots - and how all the different elements join together.

What better time to celebrate Shakespeare than during Shakespeare Week! Taking place during 16th - 22nd March 2020 your school can book one of our exciting, engaging and experiential workshops - informative for both pupils and staff alike! All of the workshops can be differentiated for age and require a minimum of 60 minutes (although we prefer longer) – preferably in a large space. And we’ll leave you with a whole host of suggestions for follow-up writing activities!

"Every year, Jackson baffles me with his energy and passion. His in-depth knowledge of the play, his enthusiasm and professionalism is outstanding. As he talks about himself too, and all the actors he’s worked with and all the plays he’s done, the children are in awe of him. The children in our year love it every year and we will be booking for next year very soon." Hasland Junior School

 

Introducing Shakespeare

The ideal way for your students to begin to get to know both the man and his works, Introducing Shakespeare gives an actor's perspective on the writer and the writing. And, fittingly, it's all done through drama techniques, as students work as a whole group, in smaller groups and in pairs on a range of activities designed to take them through the landmarks of Shakespeare's life, explore the contexts in which he wrote, analyse the genres in which he specialised and bring to life some of his most famous (and infamous!) characters.

Exploring (depending on time): Shakespeare's life and times; Shakespearean genres, characters and characterisation, simple stagecraft.

Duration: 1 hour – half a day, depending on the number of classes.

 

"The children absolutely adored every minute and you have truly inspired them to love Shakespeare! The final assembly was fabulous and we've had such lovely comments from the parents and staff. It blew me away what the children accomplished in a day and a half. You are an inspiration! St Joseph's Catholic Primary

"I would like to thank you for the excellent Shakespeare day you delivered before Easter. The children adored it and have regularly spoken about it since - many saying it was their favourite day of Year 6! Hasland Junior School

Spotlight On Shakespeare

Over four hundred years since his death, Shakespeare’s poetry is still being read, performed and listened to all over the world – which says something for its power and beauty! This experiential and highly active workshop sees pupils being introduced to a number of drama activities and approaches as we take them right through the play, exploring the backstory, meeting the main characters and bringing key moments to life. Our Shakespeare programmes are all planned and delivered by professional theatre practitioners, and so give pupils a uniquely “actor’s eye view” of the text. We certainly don’t shy away from the verse - and our approaches work with any of the plays!

Exploring (depending on time): the importance of backstories, narrative structure, characterisation, cause and effect, simple stagecraft, the role of verse.

Duration: 1 hour – 1 day, depending on the number of classes.

 

"The workshop was absolutely excellent and surpassed my expectations. I loved the way the children really got into the text, which was my aim. The thing that surprised was the breadth of Jo's experience which resulted in such a rich experience for the children." Silverhill School

"I just wanted to say how much we all enjoyed the Shakespeare workshops delivered by Jackson this week. I received only positive feedback from staff and I was very impressed with the level of engagement from all the pupils in the workshops I took part in. Thank you! Alderton Juniors

 

The Play's the Thing!

Our tried and tested approaches lend themselves to all of the plays in Shakespeare’s canon - and, with notice, we’re able to focus on particular themes of your choice. So, whether you’re looking at Othello’s insecurity, Ophelia’s intitiuon or Orsino’s inertia, we’ve just the workshop for you!

Exploring: character and characterisation, narrative structure, Shakespearean verse and prose, performance skills, staging.

Suitable for: Upper KS2, KS4 / P6/P7 - S4, up to four classes over the course of a single day.

"The workshop was absolutely fantastic. The students were all engaged and entertained and gained a joyful and interesting introduction to Shakespeare. Thank you to As Creatives for a wonderful day." Thornleigh School

"The children LOVED the workshop.  They raved about the session afterwards and talked about what they had done well into the following week.  The activities that Jo chose fit in perfectly with the English curriculum and the English sessions which we had already completed with year 6. We loved the sessions and would love to use As Creatives again during our Shakespeare topic next year." Dovedale School

 

Snippets of Shakespeare 

It’s unlikely that any of Shakespeare’s actors ever saw full copies of the plays they appeared in, instead using “cue cards” for rehearsals. And this challenging workshop builds on that theatre history. After taking part in drama exercises designed to explore the principal characters of “Romeo and Juliet” (and unlock the power of verse), this unique workshop sees pupils separating into small groups, each given all the information they need (and armed with examples of verse and/or prose), to plan, prepare and perform specified elements of the overall play. The workshop culminates in all the scenes being performed in sequence – with each being peer reviewed by its audience.

This approach can be used to explore any of Shakespeare’s plays – and for primary schools we would also particularly recommend “Macbeth”, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “The Tempest”.

Exploring (depending on time): theatre history, narrative structure, characterisation, cause and effect, simple stagecraft, the role of verse.

Duration: 1 hour – 2½ hours, depending on the number of classes.

 

"You helped us understand the play in an unusual but fun way. You really inspired me to read Macbeth and your energy made me want to do something similar to what you are doing in future. I really hope you can visit our school again.” Pupil, Pedmore Technology College

"It was a fantastic day for the children….They were all engaged and thoroughly enjoyed the day. In particular, the work with our cast of Henry V was invaluable!" All Saints Catholic Primary School

 

Shakespeare's Seven Ages – All the World’s a Stage 

After working as a whole group to explore and dramatise Jacques’ famous speech from “As You Like It”, children are introduced to a simple technique for making Padded Puppets. They then collaborate in smaller groups, each creating seven puppets, one for each Stage of Man – before staging their puppet shows for each other. With younger children we’ll work with simplified versions of Shakespeare’s text – but, whatever their ages, they’ll all be introduced to iambic pentameter in workshops that can (depending on the time available) explore Shakespeare’s life and times, narrative structure, fine motor skills, characterisation and simple puppetry.

"We were SO impressed with the workshops this year - both Year 8 and Year 9 loved them and really learnt a lot from them." Fairfield High School

 

Shakespeare for GCSE and A Level / S4 - S6

Give your students an insider’s perspective of the play they’re studying, and a chance to shine in their exams, by exploring key scenes and/or themes and/or characters in dramatic detail. Tied to the relevant syllabus, these workshops will be informed by your needs - and the more time you can give us with your cohort the better!  

"Today was genuinely my favourite ever workshop with Jo. My Year 4’s absolutely loved our full day of all things Macbeth and we cannot wait to continue back in the classroom tomorrow. Jo; you’re inspirational!" Portsmouth Grammar School

The Poetry of Shakespeare

Shakespeare’s greatest characters change as the plays they inhabit progress. So Macbeth moves from acting as his country’s brave and loyal servant to betraying it in a sea of blood. Juliet changes from a spoilt and truculent teenager to a tragic heroine – and Prospero undergoes a complete sea change from vengeful sorcerer to paragon of forgiveness. This experiential workshop uses drama techniques to introduce students to characters from a play of your choice, then introduces them to Clerihews – four line, descriptive, rhyming poems.

Exploring depending on age, focus and time): backstories, narrative structure, characterisation, cause and effect, simple stagecraft, the roles of verse and prose, iambic pentameter, the power of metaphor, theatre history, “hidden stage directions”, Shakespearean conventions.

Duration: 1 lesson – 1 day, depending on focus and number of classes

"I’d like to say a huge thank you to Jackson for his delivery of our Shakespeare poetry workshop…the students have really enjoyed learning about Shakespeare in a very active way. All members of staff were very impressed with Jackson and have all commented on how they cannot wait to use some of the techniques to inform their future practice.” Guardian Angels Catholic Primary School

 

Ways into Shakespeare (Teacher CPD workshop / INSET Day)

Supporting you in rising to the challenges of the new curriculum, this highly engaging and experiential workshop, which can be booked as a twilight or half-day or whole-day INSET, explores ways of using Shakespeare to develop pupils’ understanding of text through speculating, hypothesising and exploring ideas. In addition, of course, it will equip you with a range of approaches that can be transferred to any Shakespeare play!

“Lots of great ideas that I can apply to my GCSE teaching – and loads of accessible and fun ways of introducing Shakespeare to lower school classes too!” English Teacher, Fazakerley High

 

Shakespeare Workshops for Schools - Learning Outcomes

  • Familiarisation with characters and narrative
  • Understanding of text
  • Awareness of Shakespeare’s "hidden stage directions"
  • Shakespearean conventions

Cross-curricular links

English, Drama, History, Art, Science

For full details of our Shakespeare Workshops for Schools please drop us a line at info@ascreatives.com or call 0151 708 8886.

 

Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

Read about our work with the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust here

"Huge thanks to Jo and all the team at As Creatives - the schools in our Manchester Hub have been delighted with the workshops. You have delivered some amazing sessions (as always!). Thank you so much for all your hard work - we really do love working with As Creatives!" Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

 

Shakespeare Week - 18 - 24th March 2020

Shakespeare Week is a national annual celebration giving primary school children a great first encounter with Shakespeare. Find out more by visiting http://shakespeareweek.org.uk/

Shakespeare Workshops for Schools

 

See Our Shakespeare Workshops in Action!

 

 

 

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