Ofsted 
A Midsummer Night’s Dream Re-Imagined
- Details
- Written by Mrs C O’Shea
Students, staff, parents and members of the general public thoroughly enjoyed a fantastic array of spectacular performances of A Midsummer Night’s Dream Re-Imagined to celebrate the end of Year 2 of the King Ethelbert Royal Shakespeare Company Learning and Performance Network on Tuesday, 21st June.
Eight schools took part altogether, with pupils ranging in age from seven to fifteen. The eight schools are part of the Learning and Performance Network cluster brought together by King Ethelbert in partnership withThe Royal Shakespeare Company and The Marlowe Theatre.
The event was attended by members of The Royal Shakespeare Company and attracted great praise for the high quality, entertaining and professionally polished performances by all the schools. Marvellous!
The schools who performed are: King Ethelbert, Cliftonville Primary, St. Saviours Primary, Dame Janet Primary, St. Mary’s Catholic Primary (Whitstable), Highworth Grammar, KIngs Rochester School and The Ashford School.
Each school put on its own creatively adapted performance of a scene from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, performed in sequence on midsummer’s day, to mark the 400th anniversary year of Shakespeare’s death, linking up with national celebrations all over the country.
Parents, teachers and the local community beamed with pride as they watched, amazed and delighted by the quality and entertainment value of the performances, which were staged across outdoor venues in Margate, including The Turner Contemporary, the sea steps adjacent to The Old Town and various iconic locations within Dreamland Amusement Park. Audiences followed the performances to every location in four performances in the evening, culminating in a joyful final flash-mob event, set to Frank Sinatra’s “Love”.
All thanks go to The Marlowe Theatre for a fantastic job coordinating the event and providing the stunning photography, making the whole day turn out to be what can only be described as an event of total joy, awe and wonder. Thanks also to The Turner Contemporary for their support and use of their outside area for the performance area which represented The Court of Athens as the start of the promenade performance.
Well done all our performers from all the schools, and their teachers, for bringing Shakespeare’s most popular play to the heart of Margate, and into the hearts of all the assembled audiences!
Last night we were honoured and privileged to have received the Kent Literacy Award for ‘Best use of Shakespeare to Promote Literacy’ and ’ Overall Shakespeare Champions’ Our partnership and collaboration with the Royal Shakespeare Company has given pupils, parents and staff the confidence to explore and analyse language. At King Ethelbert School we are all teachers of literacy and it is this team approach which enables all our initiatives to be successful. We have a strong reading culture which has had an impact on our results and the aspirations of our pupils.
