Learn Associate Schools Programme Playmaking Festival Playmaking Festival Each year, in schools across the country, young people create performances through the Associate Schools Programme. These Playmaking Festivals take place in schools, theatre across the country and here in Stratford-upon-Avon. This work is deeply routed in the artistic practice of our company. Young people and their teachers approach these texts as our actors do; something to be explored and understood together as we create performance. Photo by Sara Beaumont © RSC Browse and license our images Playmaking Festivals 2025 This year young people from our Associate Schools in 24 regions will perform in Playmaking Festivals in their schools and community venues. The Playmaking Festival in Stratford-upon-Avon will take place in June and young people from across our Associate Schools Programme will come together to perform a new version of King Lear. Hamlet 2024 In the Playmaking Festival 2024 young people from across our Associate Schools came together to celebrate their work with Shakespeare in the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, with a performance of Hamlet. Young performers from Associate Schools from Country Durham. Hamlet and King Claudius. Photo by Sara Beaumont © RSC Browse and license our images Young performers from Associate Schools from Northampton. Playing Gertrude, Hamlet and King Claudius. Photo by Sara Beaumont © RSC Browse and license our images Young performers from Associate Schools from North Staffordshire. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Gertrude, Polonius, King Claudius and Ophelia look on at Hamlet surrounded by his thoughts. Photo by Sara Beaumont © RSC Browse and license our images Young performers from Associate Schools from Northampton. Ophelia speaks with Laertes. Photo by Sara Beaumont © RSC Browse and license our images Young performers from Associate Schools from Northampton. Ophelia speaks with Laertes. Photo by Sara Beaumont © RSC Browse and license our images Young performers from Associate Schools from Kent in the duel between Hamlet and Laertes. Photo by Sara Beaumont © RSC Browse and license our images Young performers from Associate Schools from Northampton. Horatio and soldiers on the castle walls. Photo by Sara Beaumont © RSC Browse and license our images Young performers from Associate Schools from Kent. The death of Ophelia. Photo by Sara Beaumont © RSC Browse and license our images Young performers from Associate Schools from Northampton. Horatio and soldiers on the castle walls. Photo by Sara Beaumont © RSC Browse and license our images Young performers from Associate Schools from Kent. Laertes and Hamlet are fatally wounded in the duel. Photo by Sara Beaumont © RSC Browse and license our images Young performers from Associate Schools from Northampton. The ghost of Hamlet’s father shows Hamlet how he was murdered. Photo by Sara Beaumont © RSC Browse and license our images Young performers from Associate Schools from North Staffordshire. Hamlet plots to avenge his father’s death. Photo by Sara Beaumont © RSC Browse and license our images Young performers from Associate Schools from Kent. The death of Ophelia. Photo by Sara Beaumont © RSC Browse and license our images Associate Schools from our Warwickshire cluster of Special Educational Needs Schools present a prologue created with students, including a Sensory Story. Photo by Sara Beaumont © RSC Browse and license our images Launch Gallery Close Hide Thumbnails The Wood of Words or In Every Leaf In the Playmaking Festival, 2023, 265 young people performed a brand-new production celebrating the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio, the Wood of Words, written especially for the Playmaking Festival by Chris White and Hannah Khalil. Photo by Sara Beaumont © RSC Browse and license our images Photo by Sara Beaumont © RSC Browse and license our images Photo by Sara Beaumont © RSC Browse and license our images Photo by Sara Beaumont © RSC Browse and license our images Photo by Sara Beaumont © RSC Browse and license our images Photo by Sara Beaumont © RSC Browse and license our images Photo by Sara Beaumont © RSC Browse and license our images Photo by Sara Beaumont © RSC Browse and license our images Photo by Sara Beaumont © RSC Browse and license our images Photo by Sara Beaumont © RSC Browse and license our images Launch Gallery Close Hide Thumbnails The work of the RSC Creative Learning and Engagement team is supported by Paul Hamlyn Foundation, GRoW @ Annenberg, The Polonsky Foundation, The Thompson Family Charitable Trust and other generous supporters. You are in: Learn Also in this section Also in this section Becoming an Associate SchoolAssociate School BenefitsAssociate Schools - FAQsBecoming a Lead Associate School < Back to Associate Schools Programme You may also like
