Stage: Shakespeare Schools Festival

Sussex schools embrace the year long festival of Shakespeare

Young people from West Sussex will be proving that all the world’s a stage in November, when they perform in this year’s nationwide Shakespeare Schools Festival (SSF). The students, aged between 8 – 18, are from schools across the region. These young people will give fresh and original interpretations of Henry V, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest and Titus Andronicus. They are among 15,000 young people across the country playing their part in the Festival’s 13th year, staging non-competitive performances of Shakespeare adaptations.

The Festival believes that Shakespeare’s words are more familiar to audiences than ever before, following a summer in which the Bard’s enduring legacy was celebrated at the opening and closing ceremonies of the London Olympic Games.

Shakespeare Schools Festival’s CEO, Penelope Middelboe, said, “There is something very exciting about entrusting the work of one of our most monumental playwrights to the next generation. It is only by allowing young people to discover for themselves how art helps make sense of their world that the UK will be able to retain its leading position as a nation with a rich cultural heritage and strong contribution to the arts.”

The Regis Centre, Bognor Regis, 6-7 November, 7.00pm, £8, £6 concessions alexandratheatre.co.uk, 01243 861010.

Tuesday 6 November: Chichester Festival Youth Theatre, Henry V, Ditcham Park School, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Oak Grove College, Much Ado About Nothing. Wednesday 7 November: Boxgrove CE Primary School, The Tempest, Fishbourne CE Primary School, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Littlehampton Academy, Titus Andronicus