The school’s second ‘Shakespeare Slam’ got off to a flying start this week when we welcomed Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) practitioner and Globe Associate, Ollie Lynes, and theatre and Shakespeare practitioner, Danielle Lynes, to the school for two days of inspiring age-specific workshops. It was a much-welcomed return for Old Bedfordian, Ollie (02-07), who has kindly worked with the boys on numerous occasions over the last few years, including online for last year’s Shakespeare Slam.
During the two days, boys from Y3 to Y8 enjoyed the opportunity to explore Shakespeare and to learn how to put a personal stamp on their performances. For our youngest boys in Y3, the characters of the three witches from Macbeth helped open the door on Shakespeare. The boys learned how to use emotion in their group performances as they flew, in character as the infamous witches, around numerous imaginary cauldrons, each containing a different emotion, before choosing the emotion cauldron they enjoyed the most.
For our Y7 boys, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth called. As the boys explored Shakespeare’s chosen words, they noted how these are often heightened, playful and layered with dual meanings. They experimented with ‘dialling up’ their delivery and, in turn, how this changed and enhanced their facial expressions. They learned how to act the verses rather than simply reading them, how to bring the language to life and how to personalise their performances.
“It was wonderful to welcome Ollie and Danielle in person this year to build upon the success of last year’s online Shakespeare Slam. It was truly wonderful to see the boys growing in confidence and having fun with their performances over the two days as they learned to present with energy and charisma.”
The boys now have until Monday 21 February to choose a monologue and learn it off by heart before performing in front of their class – the boys with the best performances in their year groups will go through to the school’s final. After that, the top two boys from KS2 and two boys from KS3 will have their monologues filmed and submitted for the national ISO Shakespeare Monologue Competition.