The landmark 400 year anniversary of Shakespeare means there are more reasons than ever to visit Stratford-upon-Avon in 2016.
A new exhibition celebrating the magic of Shakespeare on stage, reveals the secrets and stories from over 100 years of theatre making in Stratford-upon-Avon. Full of treasures from our archive and museum collection, including rarely seen props, exquisite costumes and original set designs, the exhibition will also be packed with hands-on activities and digital interactives to spark your imagination.
Opens October 2016
This fascinating new tour will take you on a journey from page to stage, following our actors and directors from the first day of rehearsals to the first performance. You'll discover how we use costumes and props in rehearsal to inform character development, and look inside our store of more than 30,000 costumes.
A festival of dangerous and exciting new plays at The Other Place. We asked our writers ‘What is unsayable in the 21st century?’ Our four Festival headliners respond to this challenge with daring explorations of language, race, gender and life in Britain today.
27 July - 27 August
A free self-guided tour for families to follow in the footsteps of the world’s most famous playwright. As you follow the route, you will find footsteps and speech bubbles painted on pavements that work as instructions for acting out a series of miniature dramas.
Until 30 October
Shakespeare's most memorable and inspiring lines selected by famous writers, actors and poets and transformed into beautiful artworks in a free exhibition in the PACCAR Room.
Until 18 September
Shakespeare for young people
We’re offering schools and young people more ways into Shakespeare than ever before. Highlights of the year include:
Shakespeare Lives in Schools: A resource for all UK schools created with the British Council to connect RSC theatre-based approaches to learning with a thematic and cross curricular approach to teaching Shakespeare at KS2 and 3, also available internationally online at the British Council Schools Online site.
Teaching Shakespeare: We’ve joined the Times Educational Supplement (TES), V&A, British Museum, BFI and Into Film to bring over 400 Shakespeare educational resources together and make them freely available online.
RSC Dream Team 2016: Inspired by A Midsummer Night’s Dream we want schools all over the country to join our ‘Dream Team 2016’ and take part in any way they like – big or small.
RSC Playmaking Festival: As part of Dream Team 2016 in June/July we’re opening our doors to schools everywhere, inviting them to Stratford-upon-Avon to be part of our first schools’ Playmaking Festival.
BBC Live Lessons and BBC Bitesize: We’ve teamed up with BBC Learning to host the first ever live Shakespeare lessons; one for primary and one for secondary schools. We also launched Which Shakespeare Character Are You? a BBC Bitesize interactive game for 7 – 11-year-olds.
Whose Culture? Celebrating 10 years of our Learning and Performance Network, in July we’re hosting a symposium, exploring what it really takes to unlock Shakespeare in primary and secondary schools.