Stop your average young person in the street and ask them what they think about Shakespeare and you can guarantee that 'Boring!' will be a fairly common response. Shakespeare remains the only writer studied by every young person in the country, but many leave formal education determined never to come into contact with the Bard again.
At the same time I see evidence every day of Shakespeare having a transforming effect on young people and their teachers. So what is it that turns some people on to our national dramatist while others are left cold by him? Last year the RSC worked on a project with young people at risk of exclusion in Birmingham. At the end of the project, students were asked to write their responses. One lad wrote 'Wow, I can do Shakespeare!' The thing that changed his mind was performing Shakespeare and seeing his plays performed. That's what turns young people on.
As early as 1908, The English Association recognised that there was a danger of placing too great an emphasis on reading Shakespeare in the classroom rather than treating the play as a piece of drama. Since then, the debate about how we should study Shakespeare and whether it should remain compulsory has continued.
Last year QCA initiated English 21, a 'national conversation' on the future of English. English 21 (now called Taking English Forward) concluded that Shakespeare should remain as a mandatory part of the National Curriculum, but also agreed that a debate should continue, led by the RSC investigating innovative and successful ways to teach Shakespeare. That is one of the main reasons why the Company is launching a major national campaign looking at the way Shakespeare is taught, studied and assessed in our schools.
The aim of the campaign is to bring about change so that all young people have a positive experience of Shakespeare at school. We think this can be achieved by creating greater opportunities for all young people to enjoy and understand Shakespeare's plays as performance texts. For me that means getting three things right. Firstly we want greater training and support for teachers, many of whom have never been given the confidence and skills to teach Shakespeare as a performance text. Second we think that opportunities should exist for students to explore the plays through theatre-based approaches, for example giving young people access to at least one live performance of a Shakespeare play during their school career. And finally we want to explore alternative ways of assessing student understanding of Shakespeare's plays.
I am not suggesting that all teaching of Shakespeare be theatre-based. But I believe passionately that all teaching should include some theatre-based activities. A script on the page, unlike a novel, tells only half the story. Tackling a Shakespeare play is not quite as unfamiliar as reading a music score but there are similarities. Yet we wouldn't dream of asking even our most talented young people to engage only with a music score. We would want to bring it to life by allowing young people to hear the music as well. With a play I think you also need that added dimension – to see it, to do it.
Theatre-based approaches can adapt Shakespeare's plays for any age and any ability. At the RSC we have worked with primary students and pupils with special educational needs. Through drama they can be introduced to Shakespeare's plays long before prejudices have set in that suggest Shakespeare might be too hard for them. Exploring Shakespeare's plays through theatre facilitates a really effective understanding of action, of characters' feelings, and of the dynamic between characters. There are clues in the text which only become apparent when you get up and 'do' a scene.
As part of the campaign we also want to change the way we work. We are developing a project where our actors take edited versions of Shakespeare out to schools, performed without set or lights in a school hall or gym. Wwe are redeveloping our main theatre to improve the quality of experience, particularly for our first time theatre goers. And to coincide with the Campaign we have just launched our Learning and Performance Network, which will provide sustained support for teachers and give even greater opportunities for young people to engage with Shakespeare through performance.
Change on this scale cannot be affected overnight and the RSC is only a small part of the solution. There is much to be done over the coming months, and we want to engage with teachers from across the country over the next 12 months to help us shape our action plan for the future. But our starting point is a belief that only in treating Shakespeare's plays as drama can we ever hope to connect with the next generation of young people.
Written by Maria Evans
