Shakespeare Ambassadors

Shakespeare Ambassadors are young people from our Associate Schools who have chosen to take on a position of responsibility and advocate for Shakespeare and the Arts.

We have 600 Shakespeare Ambassadors across the country who believe the arts matter and want more people to know that.

They are all passionate about making a difference and wanting their voices to be heard, celebrating Shakespeare, playwrighting and performing, whilst encouraging other young people to join them.

They are all activating and leading creative arts projects in their communities – and making a difference.

Shakespeare Ambassadors Projects

Young people from our Associate Schools have been involved in projects across the country this year, celebrating Shakespeare, playwrighting and performing.

Performances in Bradford

ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) students at Bradford College performed two plays supported by the work of Shakespeare Ambassadors in their school.

Because by David Edgar was a play released for Refugee Week - the poignant story of an ESOL teacher learning about the past of one of her students.

Other students performed extracts Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, first at their local Marie Curie Hospice, then in their school. Shakespeare Ambassadors supported the performances with school displays of Shakespeare quotes that inspire them.

Watch Twelfth Night

Ms Shakespeare in Birmingham

Shakespeare Ambassadors at Selly Park Girls School created a video called Ms Shakespeare, written, filmed and directed by Year 9 Shakespeare Ambassadors using a school iPad.

The film combined analysis from students, interviews with teachers and short scenes. It asks why Shakespeare, a man living through a period of submissive wives and obedient daughters, is recognised for creating some of the most strong-willed and viscous female characters of all time, exploring the characters of Ophelia, Queen Margaret, Portia and Juliet.

Scriptwriting and live performance in Kent

In response to our 37 Plays playwriting project, students at The Towers School, Ashford embarked on a programme of workshops aiming to create a performance from the imaginations and voices of the young people in their local community.

Performing Arts Students planned a programme to get pupils creating new characters and original ideas, giving many their first experience of scriptwriting and live performance.

Savannah, Towers School and Sixth Form
“Working with a group of children to create the characters was exciting. Each character became more and more interesting as we practised and developed how we wanted them to be. Once we managed to put our characters together and produce our play, the pure anticipation as we built up to showing the play to the children was something I will never forget. Hearing them laugh at certain parts of the play was amazing as well.”

Filming in Blackpool

Shakespeare Ambassadors from 20 Blackpool schools worked with our theatre partner, Blackpool Grand, to produce a video inspired by our touring production of Julius Caesar.

The young people got creative across the Fylde coast, filming their own favourite famous lines from the play with a Blackpool twist to make brilliant Sandgrown Shakespeare.

BlackpoolAmbassadors

Watch the video

If you’re aged between nine and 18 years and want to develop your own arts projects, we hope these examples have given you some ideas. Let us know how you get on at shakespeareambassadors@rsc.org.uk

Coming Soon

Shakespeare Ambassadors are students from our Associate schools aged seven to 18 years. In each school the Ambassadors plan and run a huge variety of projects inspired by Shakespeare and advocating the arts.