SHAKESPEARE SCHOOLS FESTIVAL

Pupils from Malvern St James performed their version of The Winter’s Tale at The Courtyard, Hereford on Friday 3rd October as part of The Shakespeare Schools Festival - a unique and exciting arts-education initiative which enables young people to perform abridged productions of Shakespeare’s most famous plays in their local professional theatre.

The Festival, which is open to all secondary schools and youth theatre groups within the UK, is now in its seventh year and is the UK’s largest youth drama festival. In 2008 the Festival runs up and down the country from 15th September to 24th October, featuring over 450 schools performing in 57 theatres.

The excellent performance by the girls of Malvern St James was due to the creative efforts of the Year 10 GCSE Drama group who performed their version of “The Winter’s Tale “ alongside three other schools.

With less than 5 weeks to rehearse the play, one of Shakespeare’s later works, the girls’ interpretation captured its magic and explored the themes of jealousy and redemption. The famous line,” Exit pursued by a bear” did not appear in this version !

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