Welcome to the RSC Summer School in its 77th year. This week you will meet and hear from leading members of the acting companies and creative teams to explore the choices made for the productions in the 2024/25 season. Together we will find out more about how theatre is made at the RSC, step onto the main stage to fill the auditorium with Shakespeare’s language, learn how the impact of the play changes through music composition and sound design and understand the impact of rhetoric within Shakespeare’s poetry.
You will also hear from leading academics, curated by The Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, who will challenge and enable us to look at the plays through a different lens. The Shakespeare Institute is based in the heart of Stratford-upon-Avon, established in 1951 to push the boundaries of knowledge about Shakespeare and Renaissance drama. The University of Birmingham and the Royal Shakespeare Company have a long-standing collaboration, working together on teaching, research and engagement.
The Merry Wives of Windsor Royal Shakespeare Theatre, 7.15pm
THURSDAY 15 AUGUST As You Like It Insight
With Actors from the company. Starting at 10.15am
11.15 – 11.30am stay in your seat to watch how we set the stage ready for a matinee performance
FRIDAY 16 AUGUST
How Costume Solves Problems in As You Like It
Dr Ella Hawkins
Big Wigs and Big Laughs
Geoffrey Streatfeild and Siubhan Harrison
The Therapeutic Wanderings of Pericles
Professor Michael Dobson Pericles Swan Theatre, 7.30pm
Words, words, words Geoff Barton
The School for Scandal Royal Shakespeare Theatre, 7.15pm
Buffet lunch at The Arden Hotel 12pm – 1.45pm Inside the RSC Collection
The Other Place Robyn Greenwood As You Like It
The Holloway Garden Theatre, 5pm
The Power of Argument
Edward Bennett and Mariah Gale
Anton Lesser in Conversation
EVENT DETAILS
REGISTRATION 9am – 9.45am
WELCOME 9.45am
Speak the Speech 10am – 11am
Actors and audiences are all ‘in the room’ together when watching a production in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, but how do actors vocally fill the space? What approaches to the text are needed, how are voices trained?
Led by Voice Practitioner Michael Corbidge we will experience what it is like to speak Shakespeare in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and understand an actor's approach to vocally ‘playing the room’.
11am – 11.30am Coffee
The Short and the Long of it 11.30am – 12.30pm
Samantha Spiro (Mistress Page) and Patrick Walshe McBride (Slender) talk to us about their characters and choices for the latest fast paced and hilarious production of The Merry Wives of Windsor.
12.30pm – 2pm Lunch
Bawd Games: The Merry Wives of Windsor 2pm – 3pm
Unusual within the Shakespeare canon both for its English setting and for its focus on characters who are already married, Shakespeare’s most domestic comedy nonetheless shares certain concerns with Measure for Measure and Pericles
Dr Miranda Fay Thomas discusses why, and to what comic ends?
TUESDAY
10am – 11am
Why did Shakespeare include so much music in his plays? RSC Head of Music Bruce O'Neil delves into Elizabethan philosophy and contemporary neuroscience to try and find some answers. Referencing scores composed for productions in Stratford over the last century, the evolving use of music will be explored, offering an insight into some fundamental truths about how music works in a dramatic context.
11am – 11.30am Coffee
Adrift in an Ocean of Grief 11.30am – 12.30pm
RSC Co-Artistic Director and Director of Pericles
Tamara Harvey and Alfred Enoch (Pericles) share their approaches and insights to staging Pericles’ epic voyage of loss and discovery.
12.30pm – 2pm Lunch
The Therapeutic Wanderings of Pericles 2pm – 3pm
Ever since its appearance in the repertory of a Catholic touring company in Jacobean Yorkshire, Pericles, a play explicitly presented in its prologue as possessing restorative powers, has been revived in contexts of consolation and healing. Professor Michael Dobson asks, has it really been of medicinal value?
WEDNESDAY
Sheridan’s The School for Scandal: What is a ‘comedy of manners’? 10am – 11am
The most enduringly popular of Sheridan’s plays has conventionally been described as a comedy of manners, a term sometimes stretched to include The Importance of Being Earnest and the novels of Jane Austen. Dr Louise Curran discusses what sorts of behaviour does the play really depict, and why are they still funny?
11am – 11.30am Coffee
Big Wigs and Big Laughs 11.30am – 12.30pm
Geoffrey Streatfeild (Sir Peter Teazle) and Siubhan Harrison (Lady Sneerwell) discuss Sheridan’s brilliantly biting "comedy of manners", how they approached their characters in rehearsals and the choices they have made in performance.
12.30pm – 2pm Lunch
Words, words, words 2pm – 3pm
In an age of shrinking attention spans, how do we keep engaging young people with Shakespeare’s language?
RSC board member, former headteacher and union leader Geoff Barton has recently been chairing an independent commission on oracy – the craft of speaking and listening. In this session he’ll explore some of the emerging findings, and discuss their implications for the place of Shakespeare in the classroom.
THURSDAY
Insight into As You Like It
10.15am – 11.15am
Actors from the company will practically explore scenes from the play, showing how they interpret the text and make playing choices. We will understand more about the world of this production and the relationships between characters.
11.15am – 11.30am
Stay in your seat for a quick peek into how the stage is made ready for a performance.
12pm – 1.45pm Lunch at The Arden Hotel
Inside the RSC Collection – The Other Place 2pm – 3pm
Delve into the world of the RSC Collection. Collections Manager Robyn Greenwood will share some of our most treasured objects and discuss how we care for our collection and archive.
Started by Charles Edward Flower in 1879, the RSC Collection is one of the most significant Shakespeare and theatre collections in the world. Material spans from the 1600s to the present day and offers an insight into the history of performance, the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company.
How Costume Solves Problems in As You Like It 10am – 11am
With its strict social structures, changing locations, and complex character developments, As You Like It poses various challenges for those who stage the play today. Dr Ella Hawkins will explore how past theatre productions have used costume design to address those challenges.
11am – 11.30am Coffee
The Power of Argument
11.30am – 12.30pm
RSC Associate Artists Mariah Gale and Edward Bennett take us into the extraordinary world of Shakespeare’s text through the prism of rhetoric and the art of persuasion. A huge proportion of Shakespeare’s own education was in rhetoric. Through de-mystifying its foundations and highlighting the practical uses of argument for the actor, we uncover the beauty and power of Shakespeare’s poetry.
12.30pm – 2pm Lunch
Anton Lesser in Conversation 2pm – 3pm
Celebrated actor Anton Lesser is an RSC Associate Artist having played many great roles with the company including Romeo, Troilus, Richard III, Leontes, Brutus and Petruchio to name but a few. He is also very well known for his extensive film and television works with such notable roles as Qyburn in the HBO series Game of Thrones, Thomas Moore in Wolf Hall and Harold Macmillian in The Crown. He joins us in the final session of the week to discuss his exciting and varied career.
GEOFF BARTON was an English teacher for over thirty years, Headteacher of a large comprehensive school in Suffolk for fifteen years, and General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (a trade union representing more than 25,000 educational leaders) for seven years. He is patron of the English and Media Centre, a Founding Fellow of the English Association, and a trustee of the Royal Shakespeare Company. He was recently appointed as chair of the independent Commission on Oracy in Education.
EDWARD BENNETT is an Associate Artist at the RSC. His work here includes Love’s Labour’s Won (Much Ado About Nothing). Theatre includes: Betrayal (Theatre Royal, Bath), Breaking the Code (Salisbury Playhouse), Watership Down (Watermill Theatre). TV and Film includes: Bridgerton (Netflix) and Napoleon.
MICHAEL CORBIDGE is a freelance Director, Vocal Coach, Acting Practitioner and Writer currently teaching at Rose Bruford College of the Arts. His other roles include Senior Associate Practitioner (Voice and Text) and Senior Associate Learning Practitioner at the Royal Shakespeare Company. He delivers workshops, most recently at the Brit School as well as for independent projects such as the Lyric Theatre Belfast and the ‘A’ Project Newcastle. He is a Consultant, Selector, Adjudicator and Trainer with various UK institutions. Michael runs bespoke voice workshops and classes from his own studio – The Colour Voice Studio in Kent and residential courses for his pioneering Elemental Shakespeare workshops. He is a global corporate trainer for clients including Invesco, Mastercard, J.P. Morgan, TATA, Bloomberg, Ascendas, Shell, and a number of U.K. legal institutions.
DR LOUISE CURRAN is Associate Professor in Eighteenth-Century Literature at the University of Birmingham. She is the author of Samuel Richardson and the Art of LetterWriting (2016), co-editor of Richardson’s Correspondence Primarily on Pamela and Clarissa: 1732-1749 (2024), and is currently working on a book about literary letter-writing between Alexander Pope’s authorized publication of his correspondence and the Romantic era.
PROFESSOR MICHAEL DOBSON is Director of the Shakespeare Institute and Professor of Shakespeare Studies at the University of Birmingham. His publications include Performing Shakespeare’s Tragedies Today (2006), Shakespeare and Amateur Performance (2011), and The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare (with Stanley Wells, 2001-).
ALFRED ENOCH makes his RSC debut this season in the title role of Pericles. Theatre includes: As You Like It (@sohoplace – West End), Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare’s Globe), Crave (Chichester Festival Theatre), The Picture of Dorian Gray, What A Carve Up! (online), Tree (Manchester International Festival, Young Vic), Red (Wyndham’s Theatre), King Lear (Manchester Royal Exchange, Birmingham Rep), Coriolanus (Donmar Warehouse), Timon of Athens, Antigone (National Theatre). TV includes: The Couple Next Door (Channel 4), How To Get Away With Murder (ABC) Film includes: The Critic, the Harry Potter series. Alfred is also an Artistic Associate of the Young Vic.
MARIAH GALE is an Associate Artist at the RSC. Her work here includes Henry VI: Rebellion, Wars of the Roses and Wendy and Peter Pan. Theatre includes: Measure for Measure (The Globe), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Royal Exchange). TV and Film includes: Doctor Who, Broadchurch, The Hollow Crown.
ROBYN GREENWOOD is the Collections Manager at the RSC. The Collection is one of the most significant Shakespeare and theatre collections in the world. Material spans from the 1600s to the present day. Robyn has recently worked with local community groups to select items to be displayed in our exhibition The Play’s The Thing. This is the second year that the RSC Collections team has adopted this pioneering community-led approach to share the stories of our Collection that mean the most to our local communities.
SIUBHAN HARRISON makes her RSC debut as Lady Sneerwell in The School for Scandal and Mistress Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Theatre includes: Wildfire Road (Sheffield Crucible), The Ocean at the End of the Lane (National Theatre Productions at the Duke of York’s Theatre), Home I’m Darling (Duke of York’s Theatre for National Theatre Productions), Me and My Girl (Chichester). TV and film includes: The Great Escaper, Fifteen Love, Holby City, Doctors, The Song of Lunch and Little Deaths.
TAMARA HARVEY was appointed Co-Artistic Director of the RSC with Daniel Evans in June 2023. She was previously the Artistic Director of Theatr Clwyd (2015-2023). Tamara makes her RSC debut directing Pericles in the Swan Theatre this summer. She trained at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey and her first professional job in theatre was as Assistant Director at Shakespeare’s Globe under Mark Rylance. Her award-winning shows for Theatr Clwyd included Home, I’m Darling by Laura Wade (nominated for five Olivier Awards, winning Best New Comedy), Peter Gill’s version of Uncle Vanya, digital adaptations of The Picture of Dorian Gray, What a Carve Up! and Isla, which she then directed for the BBC. During her tenure, Theatr Clwyd premiered over fifty new plays and musicals, many touring Wales and the UK, and was named as The Stage’s Regional Theatre of the Year in 2021. Together with Executive Director Liam Evans-Ford, she built partnerships and coproductions across the UK, including with the National Theatre, Paines Plough, the Sherman Theatre, National Theatre of Wales, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, ETT, Sheffield Theatres, the NHS, Social Services, the National Trust and the BBC.
DR ELLA HAWKINS is Senior Lecturer in Research and Innovation (Drama) at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Her publications include Shakespeare in Elizabethan Costume: ‘Period Dress’ in Twenty-First Century Performance (2022).
ANTON LESSER is an RSC Associate Artist whose work here includes Romeo and Juliet, Troilus and Cressida, Richard III and Julius Caesar. He is also very well known for his extensive film and television works with such notable roles as Qyburn in the HBO series Game of Thrones, Thomas Moore in Wolf Hall and Harold Macmillian in The Crown.
PATRICK WALSHE McBRIDE makes his RSC debut as Slender in The Merry Wives of Windsor and Sir Benjamin Backbite in The School for Scandal. Theatre includes: The Snail House (Hampstead); Blackmail (Mercury); Harold and Maude (Charing Cross); Trouble in Mind, Present Laughter (Theatre Royal Bath); Great Expectations (West Yorkshire Playhouse); You Mean the World to Me (Theatre Deli); Photograph 51 (Noel Coward); Almost Maine (Park); The Picture of John Gray (Old Red Lion); The Winter's Tale (Sheffield Crucible); Peer Gynt (Barbican). Television includes: The Chelsea Detective (Acorn TV); Shakespeare and Hathaway, Holby City (BBC); Giri/Haji, Dracula (BBC/ Netflix); Pixies (Big Talk); Lewis (ITV). Film includes: Lake of Death (Pryserfilm); Backdraft 2 (Universal 1440); Between Departures (BKE Productions); Blood Diamonds (Sepia Films); Tinfoil and Jackboots (Spectre). Radio includes: Peer Gynt (BBC Radio 3); Behind Beyond the Fringe (BBC RADIO 4).
BRUCE O’NEIL is the Head of Music at the RSC. As well as musically directing productions in Stratford-upon-Avon, Bruce has musically directed, supervised and produced approximately 50 RSC studio recordings and supervised music for around 30 filmed RSC productions. He was Music Director of Matilda The Musical, the UK Cast Album (recorded at Air Studios) and the Original West End transfer to the Cambridge Theatre. Bruce was also Music Supervisor for the RSC Theatre adaptation of My Neighbour Totoro, for which he jointly won (with Music Director Matt Smith) the What's On Stage 2023 Award for Best Music Direction/Supervision.
SAMANTHA SPIRO makes her RSC debut as Mistress Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Theatre includes: Guys and Dolls (Phoenix Theatre), Lady Windermere's Fan, Di, Viv and Rose (Vaudeville Theatre), A Christmas Carol (Noel Coward Theatre), Twelfth Night (Wyndhams Theatre), Macbeth, The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare’s Globe), Hello Dolly!, Much Ado About Nothing (Regents Park Open Air Theatre), Merrily We Roll Along (Donmar Warehouse). TV includes: Still Up (Apple TV), Sex Education (Netflix), Doctor Who (BBC), Game of Thrones (HBO) and Bad Education (Tiger Aspect). Film includes: One Life (Warner Bros), Hoard (Delaval Film/Erebus Pictures/Anti-Worlds), Babs (BBC) and Me Before You (Warner Bros). Samantha is a two-time winner of the Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for Hello Dolly! and Merrily We Roll Along! She also won Best Actress in a Musical at the WhatsOnStage Awards for Merrily We Roll Along.
GEOFFREY STREATFEILD returns to the RSC as Sir Peter Teazle in The School for Scandal. Previous work here includes Henry V, Henry IV Parts I & II, Richard III, Henry VI Parts I, II & III. Theatre includes: A Mirror (Almeida Theatre and West End), Watch on the Rhine (Donmar Warehouse), Blithe Spirit (Bath Theatre Royal and West End), The Way of the World (Donmar Warehouse). TV and Film includes: Until I Kill You, Ruth, Consent, Anatomy of a Scandal, Life, Traitors, The Miniaturist, Prime Suspect 1973, The Hollow Crown, Kursk, Making Noise Quietly, The Lady in The Van, A Royal Night Out, MI-5 and Rush
DR MIRANDA FAY THOMAS is Assistant Professor of Theatre and Performance at Trinity College Dublin. Her publications include Shakespeare's Body Language: Shaming Gestures and Gender Politics on the Renaissance Stage (2019), and an edition of The Tempest (for Arden Performance Editions, 2021). This summer she has been editing the 1602 first quarto of The Merry Wives of Windsor for the New Oxford Shakespeare.
THE RSC COLLECTION UPCOMING EVENTS
THE PLAY'S THE THING
Containing items from the RSC Collection, one of the most significant Shakespeare and theatre collections in the world, our free The Play's The Thing exhibition offers a unique insight into the history of theatre-making in Stratford-upon-Avon.
The Play's The Thing is located on the first floor in the Swan Wing of the Royal Shakespeare Company building.
The current exhibition has been curated in collaboration with local community groups. Three organisations in Stratford-upon-Avon have been working behind the scenes with us to select and respond to objects for this gallery. Groups from Warwickshire Pride, the Fred Winter Centre, and ILEAP (Inclusive Leisure Education Activity Project) – all co-curated the displays that were installed and opened on Shakespeare’s Birthday Weekend. As the community groups visited and worked with us, they explored different objects in the collections that related to themes of identity, journeys and power, along with the idea of ‘possibility not disability’. When you visit The Play’s The Thing you can find out more about these groups and why they chose the objects on display.
Free entry | Open every day from midday, closing at 7pm (4pm on Sundays)
SPRING SCHOOL
28 – 29 March 2025
Return to the RSC in March for a two day programme focused on Hamlet & Edward II and including discussions around Marlowe & Shakespeare.
DISCOVER DAYS
A chance to meet and find out more about the people who work at and with the RSC.
VOICE AND TEXT
With Ellen Hartley
Saturday 14 September
TOURS OF OUR COLLECTION
Friday 11 and Saturday 12 October
HISTORY AND HERITAGE OF THE RSC
Saturday 12 October
MUSIC AT THE RSC
With Bruce O'Neil
Saturday 25 January 2025
CASTING AT THE RSC
With Hannah Miller
Saturday 15 February 2025
UNWRAPPED: ON STAGE DEMONSTRATIONS
Pericles
Edward II
7 September 22 March 2025
Othello Hamlet
9 November 29 March 2025
Twelfth Night
18 January 2025
Photo by Sam Allard
USEFUL CONTACTS
Email: summer@rsc.org.uk
Box Office: 01789 331111
Follow us on Twitter @RSC_Learning
The RSC Summer School team are
Fi Ingram Head of Learning, RSC
Louise Clarke
Creative Learning and Engagement Coordinator, RSC
Professor Michael Dobson Director, The Shakespeare Institute
Sam George Learning Programmes Manager, RSC
Gemma Lawrence-George and Lisa Gaunt Events Managers
With thanks to the RSC Front of House team and The Arden Hotel.
THE HOLLOWAY GARDEN THEATRE
As You Like It
Feel the wind through the trees of the Forest of Arden as you enjoy As You Like It in our outdoor venue The Holloway Garden Theatre. At just 1 hour 20 minutes long, this edited version is a great first introduction to Shakespeare.
18 July – 1 September 2024
The Two Gentlemen of Verona Next Generation
One friend wants to see the world, whilst the other stays home: for a girl. Reunited in Milan, one will forget his love and betray the other – in the name of love, or jealousy.
A fresh approach to Shakespeare’s romantic comedy – where first loves, betrayal and a dog, all collide in music and mayhem, created by our Next Generation company.
22 – 24 August 2024
Open Stage
We're throwing open The Holloway Garden Theatre for a season of work created by community and youth groups. Come and enjoy a mix of free performances, workshops and stories. Weekends from Saturday 20 July – Sunday 1 September 2024
BECOME AN RSC PATRON
Become an RSC Patron and join a group of like-minded supporters who help create theatre at its best, made in Stratford-upon-Avon and shared across the world. Your support will train the next generation of talent, develop new writing, and make theatre accessible to all. As a Patron you will receive Priority Booking, newsletters and updates, and the opportunity to join exclusive Patron events online and in person.
To find out more visit rsc.org.uk/patrons or contact the Individual Giving Team
Email: patron@rsc.org.uk
Phone: +44(0)1789 272283
The work of the RSC Creative, Learning and Engagement department is generously supported by Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, The Clore Duffield Foundation, Foyle Foundation, GRoW @ Annenberg, The Polonsky Foundation, The Thompson Family Charitable Trust, Halabi Thomaz Foundation, Stratford Town Trust, LSEG Foundation, John S Cohen Foundation, HDH Wills 1965 Charitable Trust, Noël Coward Foundation, Teale Charitable Trust, The Grimmitt Trust, Sir James Knott Trust, The Oakley Charitable Trust, Misses Barrie Charitable Trust, and The Wyfold Charitable Trust
