Projects
The Bristol Shakespeare Festival Education Department is dedicated to making Shakespeare engaging and accessible. Fresh for 2012 we have a host of activities and projects for Bristolians both young and old to participate in.
The Complete Reworks of Shakespeare: A Live Art William Shake-up
INNOVATION
As a part of our exciting programme, the BSF, in partnership with Colston Hall, will showcase a live art platform event for UK-based artists from a range of different arts backgrounds.
We are giving you the challenge of presenting a 15-20 minute performance/ presentation based on any of Shakespeare’s works in order to explore the concept of “Shakespeare’s timelessness”. If you have any experimental ideas that you would like to develop we would like to invite you to develop something during June 2012 for presentation on the 7 July as a part of the festival at Colston Hall. It could be a short performance, a durational piece or intervention, a performance to video, a piece of dance or even a piece of cartoon animation.
The aim will be to see how Shakespeare’s ideas, words and texts can strongly engage with topical issues and how something written and performed 400 years ago can continue to collide with our society today.
For an application form and for more information please contact Eva Martino, Creative Producer, theatre@bristolshakespeare.org.uk
SHAKESLANG
Fool – don’t be a hoot stick, slang is sick!
Are you a poet, singer, rapper, beatboxer or MC? Shakeslang is a new creative workshop exploring language, at Colston Hall for people up to 25 years old. Shakespeare meets street Slang for modern day wordsmiths.
Starting on the 23rd May and running for six weeks, workshops will take place on Wednesday evenings between 6-8pm. These sessions culminate in a rehearsed lyrical ‘battle’ performance at Colston Hall during the Bristol Shakespeare Festival on Saturday 7th July 2012.
The bard was in the habit of making up words as he needed them, around 1700, coining words such as ‘eyeball’, ‘puke’, ‘obscene’ and ‘swagger’!
With increasing use of social media, messaging and summing up in 140 characters, new words are constantly being created, shortened and their meanings changed. This lyric-tastic project will look at classic Shakespearean sonnets and works, pull apart his words, their meanings and origins, translating and recreating them in modern day language and slang.
This is a must for young creative performers looking to explore different styles and improve performance skills.
To apply please submit a paragraph on why you want to take part and include any supporting evidence such as links to performances on youtube or vimeo to:
cherelle@newgenerationtakeover.com by Monday 14th May 2012
or call Cherelle on 07534 414 211 for more information
NO-ZONE
NoZone is a referral-based music workshop, delivered by some of the city’s finest Music Mentors. It aims to provide a safe, creative environment for vulnerable 16-25 year olds where they can develop & learn new skills and interests.
Staffed by local professional musicians, young aspiring musicians can get expert help and guidance to develop their skills in the areas of DJing, MCing, singing, playing an instrument, song-writing and audio production techniques.
These sessions also offer opportunities of performance at other Remix events. Examples of this include our Youth Music Week event, the monthly Remix Unplugged event and the 3-Day Album project with the renowned Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
NoZone sessions take place in the Unicorns Studios every Friday evening from 6pm – 8pm.
We will be taking Shakespearian sonnets and extracts from the elite of Shakespeare’s classics, to interpret them into a 15 minute musical performance, which will be performed as part of the Bristol Shakespeare Festival at Colston Hall on the 7th of July.
We will be using language from famous Shakespearean extracts and working together to interpret them into language we use today.
Because music is best written from personal experience, we are going to try to relate the Shakespeare extracts we have chosen to our own experiences. From this we will write some musical pieces based on these extracts, using inspiration from our own personal experiences and thoughts.
These musical pieces can be any style or influence. We will be working in group and one-on-one sessions, to build communication skills and confidence in creating music for the kids involved in the ongoing No-Zone project.
inFusion 2012
Because of Shakespeare’s universality, we believe his works can be understood by all ages. So that whether you’re 9 or 90, there is something to relate to.
This year, we are inviting up to ten schools across the city to take part in our inFUSION project. inFUSION is a chance for secondary school students to engage with a Shakespearean text of their choice and create a short performance piece based around its themes and characters.
The twist is…the pieces must be created using recycled costumes and props and must be devised with a small performance space in mind.
Each school will be paired with a local residential home and will perform for the residents and staff.
YouSonnet 2012
Our YOUsonnet competition is a city-wide scheme to encourage people from all walks of life, all different ages and professions penning and performing their very own sonnets.
The competition will see Bristol residents, schools, businesses, charities and anyone with access to a camera and a laptop uploading their attempts at a modern day sonnet to our YouTube channel.
For more information please contact Georgina Trevor, education@bristolshakespeare.org.uk.
Lectures and Discussions
There will be opportunities throughout the festival for Shakespeare fans to take part in exciting interactive lectures and discussions on Shakespeare and his works, which will take place across the city.
Urban Shakespeare
The Bristol Shakespeare Festival this year will be working in partnership with The Creative Youth Network and will be displaying Shakespeare themed graffiti and photography by students from their Arts For Life and Urban Academy classes from the Summer Term.
All the work will have roots in Shakespeare’s classics but will have an urban twist from up-and-coming young artists. The work will be displayed in the Bristol Bear Pit.
We look forward to an exciting and engaging festival 2012!
Georgina Trevor
Education Director, 2012
education@bristolshakespeare.org.uk.