Our Playwriting Competition is now open! Please send your entries to collette@shakespeareinitaly.org.uk with a chance to win £200

- 15 minute short play, comedy or drama based on experience of the current pandemic

- can refer to Shakespearean or historic characters if you wish but in a contemporary setting and is by no means essential

- submission deadline February 26th

- four finalists will be chosen and feature in a ticketed online rehearsed reading by members of our company on March 11

thank you to our partners Props Mental Health and all our sponsors in helping us to keep you creative and connected

@PropsMHealth #playwriting #playwritingcompetition #playwrights #cashprize #15minutedrama #15minutecomedy #writingnow #competition

This workshop is the second Shakespeare in Italy is running in partnership with PropsMental Health @PropsMHealth for our 15 minute playwriting competition 'Lockdown, Taboo and You.'

https://www.trybooking.com/uk/eventlist/shakespeareinitaly

collette@shakespeareinitaly.org.uk for info re: submissions etc

Suzman knows better than most it is partly the full throttle, no holds barred poetry of Shakespeare that, for modern readers, makes him such an effective lightning rod for the soul.
"The Elizabethans weren't frightened of words in the way we are today," says Suzman. " We've reduced language to the size of a Tweet, and use banal little emoticons to express very complex feelings. Whereas Shakespeare is a black piste writer; all his characters are on a precipice."
Of course, Shakespeare would never have heard the words "mental health" bandied about in Elizabethan England. Suzman dismisses the term entirely believing it, " far too bland an expression to use in relation to a writer who is the most exciting to have ever lived."

The video is below

Dr Emily Garside has masses of experience as a writer in different fields - please see a brief summary of her work.

Emily trained in Montreal and at RADA before doing a PhD which looked at theatrical responses to the AIDS crisis and the evolution of LGBTQ+ theatre. She teaches at the University of Wolverhampton, Bishopsgate Institute and runs courses for London Playwrights. As a theatre critic and journalist Emily writes regularly for The Queer Review, American Theatre, Wales Arts Review and many others.

In autumn 2019, Shakespeare in Italy UK based founders Julian Curry and Mary Chater started running Snacking on Shakespeare sessions as #volunteers in #Brighton as part of the #LivingWellFestival for the #over50's.

People sat in a circle, read scenes, discussed them and then stood them up in pairs and / or for the group.

This follows the pattern of our #InternationalSummerSchools began in 2014 in Italy.

After running some classes in sheltered housing accommodation in downtown Brighton in Jan / Feb 2020, the first lockdown began.

Online sessions with #GettingTogetherMatters, part of UK charity #VolunteeringMatters started in October 2020 and numbers are growing all the time.