Shakespeare Schools' Festival

Shakespeare Schools Festival 

 

The Shakespeare Schools Festival is the UK's largest youth drama festival.  The organisers work with over 1,000 schools and 150 professional theatres to provide the tools, support and guidance necessary to enable schools to take students aged 8-18 on a wonderful journey by performing their own Shakespeare productions in front of a paying audience.

 


Orchard Vale were proud to take part in the Shakespeare Schools’ Festival held at the Exeter Phoenix Theatre and entered a cast to perform Romeo and Juliet.  Over several weeks the children auditioning for the various parts in the play, following which the cast were chosen. 

 

Wednesday, 2nd October – 10am to 12.30pm – Workshops for cast and crew

 

The children and staff travelled to the Exeter Phoenix Theatre to take part in some Workshops.   

 

Tuesday, 12th November – Dress Rehearsal and Performance

We all travelling to the Exeter Phoenix for technical and dress rehearsals.

 

At 6pm the children had their warm up and final briefing followed by the performance which started at 7pm.  

 

Parents were able to purchase tickets to watch the performance.

 

 

Review of the rehearsals and performance by Kiara and Gracie
 
The first thing we did was gather our costumes and props and started doing our hair.  All  the girls who were playing boys had French plaits.
 
When we loaded everything on the bus we knew it would be crowded.
 
After an hour we arrived, we were very nervous.
 
We were greeted by a friendly lady who showed us to our dressing room to change into our costumes (the Capulets wore blue and the Montagues wore red).
 
After a wait it was time for the technical dress rehearsal.  The lights were spectacular.
 
We had photos taken for our family to have.
 
When it was time for make up we were all really excited and ran upstairs.
 
We all had butterflies in our stomachs. 
 
All eyes and the spotlights were on us - there was no room for mistakes, that's for sure.
 
After we performed we were encouraging other performers.
 
The evening finished and we were all tired.  
 
Phoebe, who worked at the theatre, thanked us as well as the audience.
 
Finally, it was time to go home.
 
Thank you to the Phoenix.