THE RSC CELEBRATES HM THE QUEEN’S PLATINUM JUBILEE IN STRATFORD-UPON-AVON
Images can be downloaded here
The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) will celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of its Patron, Her Majesty The Queen, between Wednesday 1 – Sunday 5 June. There will be something for the entire family, including an in-person exhibition and, following a call out for submissions, an online exhibition, both featuring memories of HM The Queen.
On Saturday 4 June, the RSC will join in Stratford-upon-Avon’s celebratory Picnic in the Park, whilst offering quieter activities in the Dell Forest Garden located by Holy Trinity Church. Between Thursday 2 – Saturday 4 June, the RSC’s iconic Theatre Tower will be lit red, white and blue. And on Sunday 5 June the RSC’s Rooftop Restaurant will offer a special Jubilee Afternoon Tea.
WEDNESDAY 1 AND THURSDAY 2 JUNE
Family Workshops
The Dell Forest Garden, 2 – 4pm
Free, no booking required, suitable for all ages
Located by Holy Trinity Church on banks of the River Avon, The Dell Forest Garden is a quiet outdoor space. Join us there to discover how we can help the environment and the environment can help us. With opportunities to take part in citizen science, writing activities, and environmentally friendly crafts, everyone can take time to enjoy the gardens and find out about how we created the space and how you can get involved in future projects in The Dell Forest Garden.
FRIDAY 3 JUNE
Memories of Her Majesty
Stratford-upon-Avon Town Hall, 10am – 4pm
Free, no booking required, suitable for all ages
Working with Stratford community groups, the RSC and Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (SBT) present a colourful and evocative exhibition, showing how HM The Queen's reign has brought families, friends and the people of Stratford-upon-Avon together. The exhibition will include photographs and specially selected items from the SBT and RSC collections that will be on display for the very first time.
Memories of Her Majesty – online
The RSC is also asking anyone to share their memories of HM The Queen for an online gallery. People can submit photos, videos and written stories, maybe of a time when HM The Queen was in Stratford, for example when she opened the redeveloped Royal Shakespeare Theatre in 2011. People can submit their memories or make enquiries via jubilee@rsc.org.uk by 16 May.
The gallery is due to launch at 10am on Thursday 2 June.
SATURDAY 4 JUNE
Picnic in the Park
Bancroft Gardens, 2 - 6pm
The RSC will be joining in the town’s celebration, ‘Stratford-upon-Avon's Platinum Jubilee Festival’ over the bank holiday weekend. On Saturday, there will be a Picnic in the Park for families on the Bancroft Gardens where the RSC will offer family activities including flag making and memory making crafts. An outdoor temporary display will also give people the chance to find out more about HM The Queen’s visits to the theatre and Stratford-upon- Avon.
Between 2-4pm, to complement Picnic in the Park, the RSC will host a relaxed and accessible picnic in The Dell Forest Gardens (located on the banks of the Avon by Holy Trinity Church) for those who prefer a more relaxed atmosphere and may find the business of the Bancroft Gardens potentially overwhelming. Activities here include a scent garden featuring plants and herbs from Shakespeare’s plays.
SUNDAY 5 JUNE
The RSC will also be offering a special Jubilee Afternoon Tea in its Rooftop Restaurant on Sunday 5 June between 12.15-3.30pm. It will feature a range of seasonal savoury and sweet delicacies, including Scone with clotted cream and strawberry preserve; Royal Swan filled with White Chocolate mousse; Passion fruit syllabub; Raspberry Toad Stool; Royal Crown Strawberry Tartlets; and Pistachio Macaroons. Cost per person: £24.95, or £29.95 (with a glass of Prosecco) or £34.95 (with a glass of Champagne). Booking for Afternoon Tea: www.rsc.org.uk/rooftop-restaurant or 01789 403449.
For more press information please contact
Dean Asker, Senior Media Relations Office
0778 9937759, dean.asker@rsc.org.uk
NOTES TO EDITORS
The RSC is supported using public funding by Arts Council England
The RSC is generously supported by RSC America
The work of the RSC is supported by the Culture Recovery Fund
Arts Council England
Arts Council England is the national development body for arts and culture across England, working to enrich people’s lives. We support a range of activities across the arts, museums and libraries – from theatre to visual art, reading to dance, music to literature, and crafts to collections. Great art and culture inspires us, brings us together and teaches us about ourselves and the world around us. In short, it makes life better. Between 2018 and 2022, we will invest £1.45 billion of public money from government and an estimated £860 million from the National Lottery to help create these experiences for as many people as possible across the country. www.artscouncil.org.uk
Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC)
The Royal Shakespeare Company creates world class theatre, made in Stratford-upon-Avon and shared around the world, performing plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries, as well as commissioning an exceptionally wide range of original work from contemporary writers. Our purpose is to ensure that Shakespeare is for everyone, and we do that by unlocking the power of his plays and of live performance, throughout the UK and across the world.
We believe everybody’s life is enriched by culture and creativity. We have trained generations of the very best theatre makers and we continue to nurture the talent of the future. Our transformative Learning Programmes reach over half a million young people and adults each year, and through our Placemaking and Public Programme we create projects with and for communities who have not historically engaged with our work. We are a leader in creative immersive technologies and digital development.
We have a proud record of innovation, diversity and excellence on stage and are determined to grasp the opportunity to become an even more inclusive, progressive, relevant and ambitious organisation.
We are committed to being a teaching and learning theatre – in which we create world class theatre for, with and by audiences and theatre makers of all ages. We provide training for emerging and established theatre makers and arts professionals, for teachers and for young people. We share learning formally and informally. We embed training and research across our company, work and processes.
We recognise the climate emergency and work hard to embed environmental sustainability into our operations, creative work and business practice, making a commitment to continually reduce our carbon footprint.
Keep Your RSC supports our mission to create theatre at its best, unlocking Shakespeare and transforming lives. Thousands of generous audience members, trusts and foundations and partners supported Keep Your RSC in 2020 and, alongside a £19.4 million loan from the Culture Recovery Fund, we are thrilled to be welcoming audiences back. It will take time to recover, to reopen all our theatres, and many years to repay the loan and the support and generosity of our audiences is more important than ever. Please donate at rsc.org.uk/donate