Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank: 14,000 students receive free tickets to a specially-commissioned production of Macbeth at Shakespeare’s Globe 12 January 2011 Students from schools in every London Borough will receive free tickets to a play at Shakespeare’s Globe in March, thanks to a pioneering partnership between Globe Education and Deutsche Bank.
Over 14,000 students from 110 schools across the capital will see a specially-commissioned production of Macbeth through the Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank programme. The project is the most comprehensive education initiative ever supported by Deutsche Bank’s extensive CSR programme, and was recognised in 2009 with a Lloyds Arts & Business Innovation Prize.
In addition to attending one of the performances, students from 30 schools will receive free workshops. Training days have been provided for their teachers. Online learning resources supporting the production and the teaching of Shakespeare will be available to schools across the UK on the Playing Shakespeare website.
Patrick Spottiswoode, Director, Globe Education, commented: “At a time when arts funding is being reduced, it is particularly heartening to be able to produce a project that will provide free tickets to a Shakespeare production for over 14,000 London students. Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank will offer many students their first experience of live theatre, let alone a live Shakespeare production.”
The project is supported by a panel of celebrity patrons including Simon Callow, Peter Capaldi, Joseph Fiennes, Blake Harrison, Matthew Kelly, Gerard McCarthy, Alfred Molina, Tracy-Ann Oberman and Miranda Raison, all of whom share the belief that young people are entitled to access theatre of the highest quality.
Lending his name to the project, Blake Harrison said, “It’s so important to give teenagers the opportunity to see great works like Shakespeare from an early age. I grew up in an area of South East London where no one ever went to see live art – it was always the cinema or TV. Projects like this open up teenagers’ eyes to live theatre and give them the chance to experience Shakespeare in its purest form.”