Last night the Hello Heaton family enjoyed an evening at The People’s Theatre, to witness the opening night of the Heaton Shakespeare Festival.
It’s the 5th annual showcase of Shakespeare, having first launched in 2023, bringing together the team at the People’s Theatre with six of Heaton’s schools to present abridged versions of some of the ‘The Bard’s’ most popular plays over two nights.
According to their website,
The project involves 180 young people aged 10-15 years old, and is a fantastic showcase for what these schools and their teachers are doing to introduce young people to theatre and live performance, and to support the arts.
The line up we saw on Wednesday 17th June was:
- Hotspur Primary School (Romeo and Juliet)
- Cragside Primary School (The Comedy of Errors)
- Jesmond Park Academy (Hamlet).
And the line up on Thursday 18th June is:
- Benton Park Primary (As You Like It)
- Chillingham Road Primary School (Romeo and Juliet)
- Ravenswood Primary School (King Lear).
Each performance lasts around 30 minutes, and the evening starts at 7pm. Tickets can still be booked online, or bought on-the-door in person on the night from 6pm (subject to availability).
We were very impressed with all of the performances we saw, and the audience was both respectful and encouraging to all of the young performers. It was particularly pleasing to see such a good turn out given the clash with the England vs Croatia World Cup match!
Congratulations to everyone involved, from the team at The People’s Theatre, to the teachers and directors involved in putting the plays together, and most importantly to the children treading the boards.
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