Shakespeare workshop

Mrs Glen and Mr Harrison were delighted today to welcome Tom and Ria from the Royal Exchange Theatre's Young Company, who delivered a range of exciting workshops over 3 sessions to our Year 8 students on Shakespearean spoken word performance.

Tom began by talking about the Shakespearean influence on a great deal of hip-hop, rap, and spoken word artistry:

And demonstrated his own spin on the rhythms of Shakespeare's iambic pentameters, before encouraging Year 8 to explore this themselves.

Tom then tasked Year 8 with channelling their inner hip-hop artistry towards a recital and performance of the iconic opening sonnet of Romeo and Juliet.

A challenge Year 8 enthusiastically took up!

Then it was time for the insults ... the infamous beelubbering, base-court, crook-pated, dismal-dreaming Shakespearean ones that is!  

Each equipped with a `Shakespeare Insult Kit`, the students took their turns in delivering them freestyle in the most hasty-witted ways that they could muster!

A really inspirational way to get a hold on Shakespearean language and performance, with huge thanks to the Young Company for visiting us today, and to Mrs Glen and Mr Harrison for organising this fantastic opportunity for our students.