The Mercury Theatre in Colchester recently welcomed over 580 young people to perform on their stage through the Mercury’s DramaFest and RSC Regional Playmaking Festival – Twelfth Night. The festivals both saw the young people perform to over 800 friends and family members.
During the first week the theatre welcomed twelve different local schools and youth theatre groups to perform as part of the Mercury Theatre’s annual schools festival DramaFest. The theme for this year’s festival was ‘Climate; An Exhibition of Change’ and saw the young people devise ten minute performance pieces around a story set in the future at an exhibition about the history of climate change, with them looking at the past and what the future of the world might look like unless everyone takes some steps towards change. The young people had been developing their pieces of work over several months with workshops with Mercury Theatre practitioners and their respective teachers.
The following week Mercury Theatre welcomed Ormiston Sudbury Academy, one of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Associate Schools’ who work with 15 schools across the East, to lead performances at the theatre as part of The RSC’s Regional Playmaking Festival. The Playmaking Festival was a celebration of the talent and voices of young people from the region with each night, around a hundred students from across the East of England performing an abridged version of Shakespeare’s ‘Twelfth Night’.
This year’s festival marks the culmination of the fifth year of the Associate Schools’ programme in the region, showcasing the work and partnership of a cluster of primary and secondary schools, led by Ormiston Sudbury Academy, one of the RSC’s Lead Associate Schools. This is the first year that the Mercury Theatre in Colchester has hosted the festival.
During the visit, the RSC team lead a series of workshops and performances across the participating schools. Each school had the opportunity to work with a professional RSC actor and director, exploring key scenes from Twelfth Night. The workshops also included exercises in voice, movement and characterisation, helping students to develop their performance skills and build confidence on stage.
Forest Morgan, Schools Producer at the Mercury Theatre said, “I’m delighted to have welcomed so many schools the theatre over the last few weeks. Providing a performance space to schools that may not usually have access to our kind of facilities has meant that we can offer key educational experiences to schools all over East Anglia. The Mercury have been delighted with the response from the students and families and we look forward to working with them on future projects.”
