After 12 weeks on the road, our brilliant First Encounters: The Tempest company took their final bow this weekend, having performed for thousands of young people and their families across the country.
First Encounters: The Tempest was our touring production of Shakespeare's play, edited for audiences aged 7 to 13. Its final performance took place at Silhouette Youth Theatre in Northampton on 10 May 2025.
We were delighted with the feedback from audiences all over the country which included a teacher who noticed their students “engaging with the performance in ways I've hardly ever seen” and a pupil who declared “I want to watch that every day for the rest of my life!"
The tour included 83 performances in 28 schools, theatres and community venues in 15 locations up and down the country. Our Creative Associates delivered 100 schools’ workshops and a total of 12,000 young people and their families saw the show. Approximately 5,200 watched in a school setting with the remaining 6,800 watching in a local theatre or community venue.
Around a fifth of the audiences in schools were new to live theatre with just under 50% experiencing Shakespeare in performance for the first time.
FIRST ENCOUNTERS: KING LEAR
Our second First Encounters production this year will tour between September and December 2025, taking the number of people who will see a First Encounters with Shakespeare production in their hometown this year to 24,000.
Directed by Justine Themen, the tour of First Encounters: King Lear will also be the first time that we have visited the Scilly Isles and the Isle of Wight, and we can’t wait to perform for audiences there.
Confirmed stops along the tour route include Northampton, Cornwall, Skegness, Stratford-upon-Avon, Southampton, Isle of Wight, Norwich and Peterborough.
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