Shakespeare in Herts, Saint Albans (2026)

02/03/2022

Hello to all of our followers! Sorry for the radio silence, Leila is studying via the European Opera Academy in Florence until May and Flora is busy with her Teaching Assistant work. Please do keep an eye out for an update on our summer courses which we will post about next month. Leila and Flora x

24/04/2021

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.’

Leila and I had an absolutely fantastic time running a Macbeth workshop for this really lovely group of young people.

Everyone contributed brilliantly to an interesting discussion about what Shakespeare suggests makes a good and bad leader (king) and we all had fun acting out all of the chaos created in the natural world when Duncan (the king) is killed (this involved a lot of running around pretending to be wild escaped horses and pretending to be ghosts).

Reviews from the students and parents:

‘The teachers were lovely and the drama games were really fun’

‘My son managed to tell me the entire story of Macbeth in the car — it really sunk in!’

07/01/2021

Quote of the Week

Twelfth Night Act 2 Scene 2

VIOLA
‘Time must untangle this not I
Tis too hard a knot for me t’untie’

Twelfth Night is (more or less) a comedy. Generally speaking, in a comedy, although a plot gets difficult and messy we can laugh because we know everything will come good in the end. In Shakespeare’s comedies his characters seem to know that they exist in a different universe to the tragic universe — one where fate will provide a happy, rather than a miserable and deadly, resolution. They have the luxury of allowing time to take its course safe in the knowledge that they will not be betrayed by the course of events. Not only is it that 'whatever will be will be', but 'whatever will be will be good'.

Viola, in this passage, voices both a confusion about her uncertian position — the miraculous comic resolution, in Act 2, is still invisible to the characters — and a faith that such a resolution will eventually come. 'Time' is the subject of the sentence — time is in charge. The individual is the negative subject, and is placed on the opposite end of the first line (the first person personal pronoun 'I'). Time (like the gods of ancient tragedy) is in charge: but is also a kind of benevolent dictator of events. Time can be trusted.

The repeated ‘t’ sounds (time... untangle... this... not... Tis... too... knot... t'untie) correspond roughly to the stresses in these lines, and the repetition of ‘knot’ in ‘not’ make these lines sound exactly that — knotty or knotted. And each line is essentially a repetition of the other: the same idea is essentially expressed twice. Viola is clearly going round in circles. She is stuck; she is powerless.

But it only takes a slight change of emphasis to see the capital-C Comedy in this state. These are supremely confident, well-ordered and fluent lines. There is no difficulty in the rhythm or rhyme — here we have a perfectly-shaped rhyming couplet that falls right at the end of the scene (as was conventional). And even the repetition of ideas could be seen as creating a sense of order and certainty, as if Viola says that 'all will be well, even if I have nothing to do with it'.

To be 'tied' is the perfect description of the tragic protagonist. But even though the characters of Twelfth Night are equally tugged along by forces they can't control, there is nothing fatalistic about this. Time, after all, promises not to tie but to untie and untangle: to free everyone from the mess of confusions, misunderstandings and mistakes that form the stuff of comedy's central acts.

21/12/2020

We're very sad that because of the Prime Minister’s latest announcement - which has moved us into Tier Four - we will now have to postpone our January workshops until Summer 2021.

Thank you to everyone who expressed an interest in coming. We look forward to seeing you in July and August 2021, in warmer weather, on the stage outside and, very possibly, without the need for Corona restrictions?

Shakespeare in Herts also has other projects in the works which we’ll keep you updated on.

We’ll be continuing to update our social media with Shakespeare related content/ costumes. So be prepared for lots of glitter/ swords/ free exam material.

For now, guess the play (this is just the opening): 👫🏾🚢⚡💨🌊🧍🏾‍♂️🌊🌊🧍🏾‍♀️🌊🌊🏝😭😭😭😭😭🧍🏾‍♀️➡️👕👖🎩🗡...

12/12/2020

Quote of the Day!

'I know you all, and will awhile uphold
The unyoked humour of your idleness:
Yet herein will I imitate the sun,
Who doth permit the base contagious clouds
To smother up his beauty from the world,
That, when he please again to be himself,
Being wanted, he may be more wonder'd at'

This quote is from Henry IV part one. A classic tale of bad boy gone good... Or is it?

This monologue comes after we see young Hal dismaying his father and the court by hanging out in bars, sword fighting, stealing and generally behaving like a reprobate. Here Hal seems to tell us, in a monologue, that all of this behaviour is just part of a plan to be more appreciated when he reforms. The sun is more appreciated if it emerges from dark clouds. Do we trust him?

An interesting thing to look at here is the word ‘imitate’. The word 'sun' has lots of different connotations (associations). It’s a pun on 'son' — Hal is the son of the king. It’s also a classic icon of the perfect conception of monarchy. Therefore we can read ‘sun’ here as meaning the ‘ideal Prince’.

If we’re reading ‘sun’ here to mean the ideal Prince, is Hal saying he is the ideal Prince who is just playing the part of the misbehaving youth? Or does the word ‘imitate’ suggest that he will play both parts: the misbehaving youth and the ideal Prince. Who is the ‘real’ Hal? How much is he playing with the classic narrative of the reformed sinner, ‘the prodigal son’? How much is he playing with us?

09/12/2020

Introducing Shakespeare in Herts’s quote of the day. Every other day I will be recording one of my favourite Shakespeare quotes (with special attention paid to GCSE texts) and then doing some close reading of them on our website ( www.shakespeareinherts.com ).

This is for anyone who may be studying for their GCSE’s, anyone who just likes Shakespeare and wants to be reminded of their favourite quotes or anyone who doesn’t know if they like Shakespeare but wants to hear some new things. Please do add in any interpretations in the comments. Quotes like these have so many possible interpretations and it might help someone with an exam. On a side note I discovered that the word ‘bubble’ has a really interesting history which makes interpreting this quote even more complex.

30/11/2020

Shakespeare in Herts: fun Shakespeare workshops for children
and young people!

Kids should ‘get’ Shakespeare. The stories are timeless – teenagers in love, evil queens, horrible kings, love affairs gone wrong, twins swapped at birth, fathers and sons at odds, mothers and daughters at each other’s throats. Even more importantly Shakespeare is one of the best storytellers going. But all too often they hate the plays, seeing them as forbidding, wordy and therefore, boring.

The magic is in the performance. Shakespeare was written to be read out loud. So, Shakespeare in Herts – a new company created by two twentysomethings who’ve been performing Shakespeare since they were tiny fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream – are hugely excited to offer a way for your children to ‘get’ Shakespeare.

When the Royal Shakespeare Company or the National Theatre prepare for a play, they set up workshops to get to know the text, characters, and each other. Shakespeare in Herts will set up similar workshops for your kids and grandchildren. By getting Shakespeare up onto its feet, they’ll build confidence, understand drama, and be unafraid when they study Shakespeare in school.

We’re starting on day one with two of the biggies for 12-16-year old participants – teenage heartbreak in Romeo and Juliet and Game of Thrones style skullduggery in Macbeth. Days two and three will be aimed at a younger company of 8-12-year-old’s. And what a line up for them! A Midsummer Night’s Dream and As You Like It: Evil spirits, bad dukes, plucky heroines, beautiful woodlands, and mischievous fairies.

The most important thing is that we start from scratch. Our performers don’t need to have read a word of either play, or even to have heard of them. We break them down, so the participants can build them up. We’d love to do it outside if its not too cold, but we have a special warm place set aside at Serge Hill House if we need to retreat. Either way, it’s going to be COVID secure.

So, dates for the diary:

2nd January for 12-16 year olds Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth 9:30-5:30

3rd January for 8-12 year olds As You Like it 10:00- 13:00

4th January for 8-12 year olds A Midsummer Night’s Dream 10:00- 13:00

Have a look at the event on our website (https://www.shakespeareinherts.com/) for prices, a more detailed timetable, our COVID safety and child protection policies. You can also find more information about us and our work on:
• Instagram: shakespeareinherts
• Facebook: click the page link above

We’ll leave you with the opening of this brilliant speech from As You Like It…

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts…

13/11/2020

Our educational theatre company is made up of two best friends who have been acting in amateur Shakespeare plays together since they were seven years old.

With the assistance of handmade wooden swords, papier-mâché helmets and even a giant painted castle we were given the opportunity to perform as many of Shakespeare's most wonderful characters.

Putting on these plays at a young age gave us a love of Shakespeare which has continued to bring us incredible amounts of joy — a joy we’re now hoping to extend to other young people! Importantly, we both also know the powerful effect that really understanding and engaging with Shakespeare can have on both your enjoyment of, and grades at, school.

Leila now studies Opera at the Royal Welsh College of music as well as teaching weekend drama courses. I (Flora) graduated from UCL with a degree in English Literature. I then spent a year studying for a masters in Applied Theatre at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

We’ve spent four years developing this course, poring over academic texts/ working out the best way to incorporate fairy lights and giant plastic moons.

If you’re a teacher or represent a school then we can teach in your classroom, on your stage, online, or on the stage attached to the house where we first held our childhood plays. Wherever it is, the stage is waiting to be filled again, the papier mache helmets are itching to be put on...

Please get in contact via our website (which is in our bio) or email us on [email protected] to find out more! We also offer private courses which we will be announcing shortly (please follow us for updates).

Pictures: Leila and I as Juliet, Katherine, Rosalind, Celia, Beatrice, Hero... Have a guess in the comments who is playing who...

The last two pictures are of us planning a workshop on zoom during lockdown and the other is my first picture of us together in costume (aged 10) ...

13/11/2020

Shakespeare in Herts was set up by two drama practitioners who offer tailored Shakespeare courses to young people aged between 8-18, both privately and in school settings.

Our approach reflects our belief (born from personal experience) that Shakespeare’s plays are a wonderful gateway to a love of literature, ideas, and the world of the imagination.

His largeness, his ambiguity, his language, and the scale of his imaginative engagement have the power to shake you, intellectually and emotionally.

We also know that Shakespeare is embedded in school curricula, and one of the most challenging components of GCSE and A Level English Literature courses.

The Shakespeare Sessions help students to overcome the challenges of studying Shakespeare by putting his plays and themes up onto their feet.

Exploring Shakespearean text through speech and drama gives an understanding of the power of his language felt through speech, sparks imaginative engagement experienced through interpretation, and gives an enduring sense of ownership of ideas, both Shakespeare’s and one’s own.

We explore the plays from the inside.

And it’s fun! Glitter and swords...

One of the things we are most excited to offer is the chance to perform on an outdoor stage in a beautiful setting (there’s also a ship nestled in some bluebells).

Please have a look at our website for more details.

Shakespeare in Herts

02/03/2022

24/04/2021

07/01/2021

21/12/2020

12/12/2020

09/12/2020

30/11/2020

13/11/2020

13/11/2020

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