Hospital role for Covid chief

PROFESSOR Carolyn Wilkins has been appointed as the new chair of Mid Cheshire Hospitals

As Director of Contain with Test & Trace, Prof Wilkins supported local authorities across the country with their Covid response

She takes over at the NHS Foundation Trust from Dennis Dunn, now High Sheriff of Cheshire

Previously chief executive of Oldham Council and accountable officer for NHS Oldham Clinical Commissioning Group, Prof Wilkins was awarded an OBE in June 2016 for her services to local government and public service reform

Deaf actors sign up for Shakespeare

STAGE and TV star Charlotte Arrowsmith is helping deaf children fall in love with Shakespeare

Charlotte, the first deaf actor to star in a mainstream Royal Shakespeare Company production, is filming scenes from one of the Bard’s best-loved plays, Macbeth, in British Sign Language

She and fellow deaf actors are part of a pioneering project from the RSC and University of Birmingham academics to make Shakespeare more accessible to deaf children in schools

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There currently aren’t any standardised BSL signs for many character names in Shakespeare’s plays, so the experts created signs which could be integrated into the BSL performance

For example, the sign name for Macbeth uses a combination of the sign for ‘ruler ’ , the BSL sign for the letter M and a claw-like hand-shape – which alludes to the dragon that one of the actors found on the crest for the Macbeth clan

Dr Abigail Rokison-Woodall, who co-led the Signing Shakespeare project and is the parent of a deaf child, said: “Shakespeare, as well as being a compulsory part of the curriculum in England, is part of our national identity, so it is wrong that for so many young people they can’t be as involved with Shakespeare as other students, simply because the resources aren’t there

“It was important that we made Signing Shakespeare engaging and exciting so that students would enjoy the experience of learning about the play ” n www rsc org uk

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