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RSC Dream Team

The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is inviting every UK school to join the RSC Dream Team 2016 to mark Shakespeare's 400th anniversary. The invitation is part of the Company's special production of A Midsummer Night's Dream: A Play for the Nation, which will tour the UK next year.

Any school can get involved in lots of different ways, whether it is spending one lesson on the play, creating an Athenian wood in the playground, making their own donkey ears or fairy wings to wear in school for a Midsummer celebration, or producing a fully staged production. They could also get the chance to work with an RSC actor in their own school, or perform in Shakespeare's home town of Stratford-upon-Avon as part of the Dream Team Festival in June next year (see Notes to Editors for full details).

Schools can sign up from today (Monday 7 September) at www.dream2016.org.uk/education Specially-created, free resources are available to download to help teachers and students plan their participation in this nationwide celebration of Shakespeare's best-loved play.

Resources include:

  • 60 minute and 30 minute edits of A Midsummer Night's Dream for use by primary, secondary and special schools
  • A specially-composed musical score created by Lynne Plowman
  • Guidance on directing and design from RSC Deputy Artistic Director, Erica Whyman, and RSC Director of Design, Stephen Brimson Lewis

Those that register before 31 October and tell the RSC how they plan to celebrate A Midsummer Night's Dream, could receive one of 400 limited edition copies of a commemorative Playmaking Pack.

Jacqui O'Hanlon, RSC Director of Education, said:

“We are inviting schools across the UK to join in our Dream Team 2016 extravaganza. It promises to be the biggest celebration of Shakespeare's much-loved play to date, with celebrations happening in classrooms all over the country. The whole project concludes with a nationwide week of performances and a special Festival in Stratford-upon-Avon, where pupils can come and hone their acting skills, perform their plays and learn from RSC actors and directors.

“For schools who might feel nervous about staging Shakespeare's work, our new 60 and 30 minute edits offer the perfect introduction and come with all the supporting tools, tips and insider know-how they'll need to create breath-taking productions. We have designed Dream Team 2016 so that schools can choose the level of involvement that feels right for them. Younger children will love performing our 30 minute edit for parents, or might simply come to school on Midsummer's Day wearing a pair of donkey ears or fairy wings that they've designed and made themselves. We are looking forward to seeing how schools around the country create their own celebrations inspired by A Midsummer Night's Dream."

Dream Team 2016 has been designed by RSC Education to coincide with the final leg of A Midsummer Night's Dream: A Play for the Nation. This national celebration of Shakespeare will see the RSC's production visiting each region and nation of the UK, working with 13 partner theatres, 84 amateur performers and 580 schoolchildren, alongside 18 professional RSC actors, led by Deputy Artistic Director, Erica Whyman. To find out more and to book tickets to see the production, visit www.rsc.org.uk/whats-on/dream2016/ 

In each region, local amateur theatre companies will play the Mechanicals and local school children will play Titania's fairy train. A Midsummer Night's Dream opens in Stratford-upon-Avon at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in February 2016, before embarking on the nationwide tour and returning to Stratford-upon-Avon with the entire company in June 2016. 

ALSO COMING UP IN 2016:

  • RSC EDUCATION demonstrates the power of Shakespeare's work and live theatre to influence the confidence, skills and aspirations of young people in a special Symposium on 5 July 2016. The conference celebrates 10 years of the Learning and Performance Network, the RSC's national partnership programme with 10 regional theatres and 400 schools, all in areas of socio-economic disadvantage. In the last decade, this acclaimed programme has transformed the experiences of over 750,000 children and their teachers delivering real and significant benefits to young people across the country. Full details will be issued in early 2016.
  • NEW RSC School Shakespeare Editions: Oxford University Press and the RSC are working in partnership to create a new series of Shakespeare editions for 11 – 14 year olds. Developed in consultation with teachers across the country, the plays introduce young people to Shakespeare's world and work using approaches direct from the RSC's rehearsal rooms. Available from March 2016 the first titles to be released will be Romeo and Juliet and Much Ado About Nothing followed by Macbethand A Midsummer Night's Dream in September 2016.

Ends 

For further information on RSC Education contact Jo Hammond onjo.hammond@rsc.org.uk (07739 330294)

Notes to editors: 

DREAM TEAM 16 – ACTIVITY AT A GLANCE 

1. REGISTRATION: 7 September 2015 onwards 

2. DREAM TEAM 2016 CELEBRATIONS
    
I. Dream Day: 24 June 2016 
Students can celebrate Midsummer's day by designing and making their own pair of donkey ears or fairy wings to wear to school 

II. Dream Team Festival: 24 June - 15 July

In Stratford-upon-Avon: 24 June – 1 July 2016

  • Schools from across the UK visit Stratford-upon-Avon to take part in a series of schools' workshops and drop-in sessions led by RSC creatives
  • Schools perform their productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream in The Dell, the RSC's outdoor theatre space

Around the country: 4 - 15 July 2016

  • Schools stage their own productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream
  • RSC artists visit schools across the UK

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM: A PLAY FOR THE NATION, by William Shakespeare, directed by Erica Whyman is a co-production with amateur theatre companies across the UK (an arrangement developed between the RSC and Equity).

The production plays in Stratford-upon-Avon from 17 February – 5 March and 15 June – 16 July 2016 in Stratford-upon-Avon. The production is on tour across the UK between March and June 2016. 

SUPPORT 

The RSC Ensemble is generously supported by THE GATSBY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION and THE KOVNER FOUNDATION 

A Midsummer Night's Dream: A Play for the Nation is supported by Arts Council England Cross-Border Touring Fund 

The RSC is supported using public funding by Arts Council England 

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. OUP is the world's largest university press with the widest global presence. It currently publishes thousands of new publications a year, has offices in around fifty countries, and employs some 6,000 people worldwide. It has become familiar to millions through a diverse publishing programme that includes scholarly works in all academic disciplines, bibles, music, school and college textbooks, children's books, materials for teaching English as a foreign language, business books, dictionaries and reference books, and academic journals.

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