In January 2025, our associate director, Jonny Wiles, ran two days of workshops for students at Jack Hunt School in Peterborough. He was joined by Oliver Culleton, a Peterborough-based actor and an expert in Shakespearean theory and performance, and over two days, they worked with over 350 students on Romeo and Juliet and Othello. For many of the year 10 students working on Romeo and Juliet, not only was this their first time exploring the play, it was also their first time encountering Shakespeare. By the end of the sessions, they had staged the first act of the play, and had been introduced to its key characters, plot points, and themes. The year 13 students took a particularly strong interest in Othello’s presentation of women, and in the play’s treatments of race and class. The students were the leading voices in an intensely practical and intellectual session, and work on individual scenes led to in-depth discussions of individual characters, as well as the intricacies of the play’s contexts and major themes.

In April 2024, we welcomed over 100 students from two schools to the Playground Theatre, to a pair of workshops on Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. Led by our associate director, Jonny Wiles, and two expert Shakespearean actors, Beatrice Allen and Georgia Figgis, the students worked on Act 1 of the plays, which they will be studying for their GCSE exams.

In October 2023, students from Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe, joined our artistic director, Bill Alexander, for a morning of workshops on The Merchant of Venice at the Playground Theatre. Bill gave the students a view into the play’s original context, and introduced them to its core themes and ideas, many of which are still extremely visible and pressing in the modern day. He worked with several of the actors in attendance, including company members Jonny Wiles and Jeremy Peckham, to present some of the play’s early scenes for the students. He also invited the students to perform scenes themselves, and the students’ performances and direction brought out the depth and versatility of Shakespeare’s language and characterisation.

We worked with St Marylebone C of E School, London to develop a comprehensive programme for their Year 8 cohort focusing on The Merchant of Venice. We delivered in-school workshops, provided free performance tickets as well as a post-performance Q&As with the actors.