Shakespeare 4 Kidz News

IT'S MIDSUMMER WORKSHOP MADNESS!

Shakespeare 4 Kidz workshops for just £5 a student*

“Lord, what fools these mortals be”

With these hard times around, and cutbacks seemingly everywhere, we’ve been putting our heads together to create an affordable offer for the summer term.

We’ve come up with a way to offer our acclaimed Shakespeare workshops for just £5 a student*. We’re calling it our MIDSUMMER MADNESS WORKSHOP offer.

This is how it works:

Our regular workshop price is £320 for up to 40 students. We are reducing the price for a second workshop in the same day to just £80.

That’s £400 for two workshops – over a third off our standard price.

With up to 80 students able to participate in the day – that works out at just £5 per student*.

“Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t!”

As you can imagine, to make this fantastic offer work we have to ensure that we are as efficient as possible in organising it. So there are a few terms and conditions …

1. The only dates available are Monday 16th May - Friday 22nd July 2011

2. The geographic region (eg South West England) may only be available on specific weeks so please check with the Education Department

3. Both workshops must be in the same location on the same day

4. No more than 40 students per workshop

5. The full cost must be paid on booking

6. The workshops offered are A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, MACBETH, ROMEO AND JULIET or THE TEMPEST

7. NB First come first served. Once they’re gone, they’re gone!

CLICK HERE to find out more about our Creative Shakespeare Workshops or visit www.shakespeare4kidz/education

CONTACT the Alexandra in the S4K Education Department for availability and bookings.

Tel: 01342 894548
email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

“This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard”

* Silly small print. The cost of £5 per student is based upon two workshops for £400 attended by 80 people. Please note that all prices are net of VAT.

CLICK HERE TO READ THIS ARTICLE ON THE OBSERVER WEBSITE

Stage dream comes true for Sean Luckham in Southsea

As a 14-year-old, Sean Luckham was a follow-spot operator at the Kings Theatre in Southsea, dreaming of one day himself being in the spotlight.

It’s a dream that has come true.

Bognor Regis-based Sean is playing Bottom on the Kings stage in Shakespeare 4 Kidz’ version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream on Wednesday, March 11 at 10.30am and 1.20pm.

“I was born and brought up in Portsmouth, and I have done panto there, as well as taking several other shows there. It’s just a fantastic theatre. It’s like going back home.

“Can you imagine being a 14-year-old and dreaming about being on that stage! I had always wanted to be actor, but that’s how I learnt that this was what I really, really wanted to do. The Kings is such a beautiful theatre.”

And it’s because of those origins there that Sean is pleased still do to things the

Shakespeare 4 Kidz way, with the actors serving as their own crew in terms of setting up the show in each new venue.

In fact, Shakespeare 4 Kidz is something Sean feels passionately about. It’s a company that brings in music and dance to make the Bard completely accessible to younger generations.

“What makes it work is because Shakespeare wrote absolutely fantastic stories - such original stories. We take the Shakespeare and mix in some modern language and songs and music, We might put a long speech to a nice song and music.”

If youngsters then want to delve deeper and take it further, they can turn to the original. Shakespeare 4 Kidz will have provided the perfect introduction.

“For a lot of the children, it will be the first time they have ever even seen a live show. This is very quick and grabs their attention. Every ten to 15 seconds there is something happening. You have got to keep it interesting.”

The problem is the tendency to think that Shakespeare is for the posh and the upper classes: “Shakespeare wrote for the masses. Most of them were normal, ordinary working people. Shakespeare was hijacked for the high-brow.”

Now Shakespeare 4 Kidz are doing their best to reclaim him...

CLICK HERE TO READ THIS ARTICLE ON THE PORTSMOUTH NEWS WEBSITE

After finishing his day’s studies as a 14-year-old at Priory School in Southsea, he went to the Kings Theatre and learnt to operate the follow-spot – and now he himself is to be in the limelight on the same stage.

Sean Luckham will play one of Shakespeare’s greatest comic creations, Bottom the wacky weaver who is ‘transported’ into an ass by the mischievous Puck, in the Shakespeare 4 Kidz musical production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

In his youth, Portsmouth-born Sean enjoyed performances at the Kings by many stars and admits he still swoons over his memories of Judi Dench and Kate O’Mara.

They inspired him to join the Hampshire Specialist Drama Course and then to tour in many shows before producing and performing as a Redcoat for Butlins at Bognor Regis.

He now lives at Bognor with his wife and three children – so what do his own ‘kidz’ think of their dad playing Bottom?

‘They love it,’ he says. ‘They think it’s the norm for Daddy to dress up in silly wigs and costumes, and frocks at Christmas to play the Dame in panto. They think all daddies do that!’

And why does he love playing Bottom? ‘He is fantastic and goes on a fabulous journey.

‘He thinks he is everything but really he is nothing. Then he goes off into this dreamlike state and has a relationship – albeit brief – with the most beautiful creature.’

Sean is one of S4K’s popular regular actors. He was a huge success playing Peter the servant in Romeo And Juliet – a role in which he rode on and off stage on his scooter and wore a silly wig.

He is usually cast as one of the funny characters, including a gravedigger in Hamlet and Stephano, the drunken butler, in The Tempest.

He recalls: ‘My niece Sophie came to see that show with her school. She told all her classmates I was her uncle but they wouldn’t believe her.’

Now he jokes that he is looking forward to showing his Bottom to home audiences, friends and family at the Kings on Wednesday (10.30am and 1.30pm).

n Tickets: (023) 9282 8282 or kings-southsea.com.

CLICK HERE TO READ THIS ARTICLE ON THE BICESTER ADVERTISER WEBSITE

Shakespeare’s magic adapted for children

SHAKESPEARE 4 Kidz are bringing their magical, musical version of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream to the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre for two performances on Friday, March 18.

With fairies and fun, royalty and romance and plenty of magic and misunderstandings, this child-friendly adaptation will be making its very first appearance at the Waterside.

There will be songs, dances and lots of spellbinding effects as the fairies create a world of wonder in the woods.

The story involves a Duke marrying his Amazonian queen, two sets of lovers who elope into the woods.

Here the audience comes across feuding fairies and the naughty sprite Puck – not to mention the group of bumbling Athenian workmen who are busy rehearsing a play to entertain the royal couple at their wedding celebrations.

One of the workmen, Bottom the weaver, is one of theatre’s funniest roles, and this is set to be a production to entertain young and old alike.

Using the whole Shakespearean plot, and slotting in the most famous original lines into modern language, Shakespeare 4 Kidz manages to create a performance even the youngest primary school children can understand.

The script flows so easily and seamlessly that most people don’t even realise that about 20 per cent of this version of a true classic is in Shakespeare’s own words.

Shakespeare 4 Kidz are renowned for their engaging productions and supported by a variety of celebrity fans includingV ictoria Wood, Graham Norton, Barbara Windsor and Dame Judi Dench.

Dame Helen Mirren described The Dream as “the avatar of Shakespeare, with something to be enjoyed by all age groups, a great message and lots of fun and fantasy”.

Performances are at 10.30am and 1.30pm, tickets £16.

For fun with the fairies, visit Aylesbury Waterside Theatre box office, call 0844 871 7607 or visit www.ambassadortickets.com/aylesbury (booking fee applies to all telephone or online bookings)