National Shakespeare Day

National Shakespeare Day - 23rd April

As well as being St George’s Day, did you know that 23rd April is also National Shakespeare Day? It is the day that is believed to be the date of William Shakespeare’s birth (a not so fun fact is that he also died on 23rd April…) and as he is arguably one of Britain’s greatest playwrights and is responsible for many of our popular sayings, we thought we’d help you celebration with these facts!

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford upon Avon in England in 1564, he was known for his hugely successful plays and you can even visit his childhood home, it is still in the centre of Stratford!

Shakespeare was known to have written around 37 plays and 150 poems! Some have been lost and it is believed that some were co-written, but that is still a huge amount of work!

Shakespeare was one of eight children, his parents were John, a successful glove maker and Mary, who was an heiress.

Unlike many of the children of his age, Shakespeare and his siblings actually had a good education and attended several prestigious schools.

Shakespeare’s wife shared a name with a famous actress, he married Anne Hathaway, a local farmer’s daughter! They had three children together, Susanna and then twins Judith and Hamnet.

After being noticed, his plays became huge hits and can be sorted into three categories: Tragedies, Comedies and Histories.

The Globe Theatre, which is where many of his plays were performed, was an open air theatre that accommodated people from all walks of life, including those that were poor. If you could afford it, you could have a nice, comfy seat on the upper level with a good view, but if you were poor, you would have to stand on the ground floor where you were at the mercy of the elements!

Two of Shakespeare’s biggest fans were royals! He was a favourite of both Queen Elizabeth I and King James VI/I. King James in particular would invite him to perform at court.

Did you know that back in Shakespeare’s time, women were not allowed to be actors? All the female parts were played by men.

Today there are loads of cool effects that can be done in theatre shows and the Globe was ahead of its time with its use of special effects. They would use wires, fires and more. Once a canon being fired as part of a play caused the roof to catch fire and the whole thing burned down! It was rebuilt and is now a tourist attraction where you can go watch modern performances of Shakespeare plays.