Triumph for Swindon Schools Shakespeare Festival 2000
"It was great to break away from the national curriculum and extend
children beyond what the system demands of them," said one headteacher
during the West Swindon Millennium Shakespeare Festival held in the first
two weeks of April.
Sixty-five matinee and evening performances of thirty minutes each were staged at Greendown School by 14 primary schools, three secondary schools, two colleges and two drama groups involving some 1,200 performers. The festival was one of the British flagship projects selected by the Shakespeare Centre in Stratford which is recording hundreds of Shakespeare events world-wide during year 2000. Speaking at the festival launch on 1 April, Royal Shakespeare Company actor David Calder said he was honoured to be its patron and hugely impressed by the scale of the project. The brainchild of Greendown teacher Tim Noble, the festival was funded by a lottery Millennium Award, the Shakespeare Centre Trust, Swindon Foundation for the Arts and Swindon Council. Regrettably, despite appeals over the last six months, sponsorship from business in the town has amounted to a miserly £350. Exhausted from coordinating months of preparation and performances, and also acting in a Greendown teachers' production, Tim paid tribute to the teachers who had worked so hard to prepare their pupils. "On top of their classroom duties, the teachers put in enormous extra effort. They have been like Shakespearean actor managers - adapting a play, deciding how to stage it, casting and directing the actors and selling the tickets. Last October few had done anything like this, let alone tackle Shakespeare." All the performances were memorable. Tregoze School used video, dance and their own musicians in an innovative presentation of Macbeth. Robert Le Kyng School put on Pericles as an ensemble with performers dressed in black and speaking the parts as a choir. Saltway School staged the Merchant of Venice in a traditional manner, but explored the persecution of minorities in a very modern way. The children at Crowdy's Hill School took Julius Caesar into another dimension, discovering new abilities in youngsters with special needs. Marilyn Brown, headteacher at Abbey Meads School, said, "it has been a brilliant opportunity for children to read texts above their level; learning Love Labour's Lost has enriched their education immensely." Nicki Moon, joint director of Brook Field School's A Midsummer Night's Dream said, "rehearsals were an extra pressure whilst preparing for an Ofsted inspection but we would not have missed it. The children loved every minute whilst parents have been amazed by their enthusiasm." Tracy Muir, a Canadian from Stratford, Ontario, on her final teaching practice at Wroughton School said, "it was a wonderful experience to be involved with such a creative and exciting project." The festival attracted international interest and American teacher Amy Ulen flew over to help out during the second week. "Tim first made contact via my web site www.ulen.com/shakespeare and we have been linked to the swindonlink site for about a year. The scope of the festival was really impressive and some of the performances were excellent. I am taking back many ideas on how the Bard can be taught." Tim hopes the festival will spread across the town. "This year we attracted schools from beyond West Swindon. The enthusiasm was enormous and we've shown that children greatly benefit from both reading Shakespeare in the classroom and by becoming totally involved in presenting a play to an audience." Several videos are planned from footage shot before and during the festival for sale as teacher training aids. But for the future, the major problem of attracting funding for such a large and innovative educational venture has to be overcome. Photos from Shakespeare Festival performances at Greendown School
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