Nine students from Bradford College have re-created and filmed a scene from William Shakespeare’s play The Taming of the Shrew.
The students based their performances on their experiences during lockdown after being asked to create an original piece of work based on Shakespeare’s play.
They performed dialogue from the original play, made their own sets and designed original costumes. Themes in the play include isolation, family wellbeing, mental health, hope and redemption.
The students are part of a weekly Shakespeare Club in Bradford, which helps to improve the language and social skills of young people in the city who use English as a second language.
The film was made by the students who worked with Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) director Justin Audibert. The play will be shown on the RSC website on Wednesday, July 8 as part of the company’s annual Playmaking Festival.
Julia O’Keeffe, Bradford Theatres’ Learning Co-ordinator, said: “Justin was great at getting the students to explore the words and meanings to really understand the characters.
“He helped them find so much useful information so when they performed, they were in touch with the meaning and feeling of the speech. He also helped them understand about interpreting a speech; there is never just one way of understanding but many layers.”
RSC Director of Education, Jacqui O’Hanlon said: “In these unprecedented times, there is growing concern about the impact of COVID 19 on the mental well-being of young people.
“Theatre and arts have a vital role to play in the recovery of young people, communities and schools. The Playmaking Festival is one example of many across the UK and around the world where we see an outpouring of artistic work from people of all ages and at all stages of their lives.”
The RSC Associate Schools Programme works with local and regional theatres and supports over 100 pupils across England through the annual Playmaking Festival each year.
Further information can be found here: www.rsc.org.uk/education
