Today (24 June) marks the start of Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation’s (CSSF) silver jubilee celebrations, with the release – from ‘Midsummer to Twelfth Night’ – of 25 inspiring stories from people whose lives were transformed by participating in the CSSF Theatre Festival.
CSSF delivers the world’s largest youth drama festival with around 10,000 children and young people participating every year. Children from all backgrounds and communities gain vital access to the arts and develop the skills they need to thrive including confidence, resilience, empathy, teamwork, creativity and communication development.
The 25 CSSF Theatre Festival alumni include Evie Buckley, who went on to become Digital Commissioning editor and Channel 4.0 Lead at Channel 4. Evie recalls that, for her, participating in the festival “had that sort of legacy effect of being something that I was always really proud of. It definitely was a contributor to being able to speak in public. It felt like a haven of safety and creativity. It stays with you, your teenage years stay longer than anything else. If you have a positive experience, then that will have a massive impact on you and your confidence for the rest of your life.”
Jonathan Pye first took part in the CSSF Theatre Festival as a teenager, performing in a production of Twelfth Night. Years later Jonathan trained as a primary school teacher and directed his pupils in several productions for the CSSF Theatre Festival. Jonathan says: “I want children regardless of their background to have that same experience that I was lucky enough to have.” He recalls taking a Year 6 Hamlet production to the West End’s Piccadilly Theatre alongside the actor and CSSF patron Paterson Joseph and winning praise from Dame Maggie Smith who was in the audience.
Jonathan also feels passionately about “giving children the chance to have a stage, who might not be the ones who’ve always had the limelight” and recalls: “I’ll always remember this one child, who was quite quiet, quite shy. But she had this beautiful musical voice almost like a sing song voice and I listened to them audition. I gave Viola to her, and you could just see how happy she was to get it; she was beaming ear to ear, and it was lovely. She’s 21 years old now and her mum got in touch with me a few years ago to say she’s off to university to study literature”.
CSSF was founded by Chris Grace MBE, a former broadcaster who developed this work from his BBC/S4C Animated Tales of Shakespeare series. The first performances, in 2000, took place at the Torch Theatre in Milford Haven in Wales and since then over 350,000 children and young people have performed across the country.
The festival reaches pupils at primary and secondary schools, pupils with special educational needs (SEND) and children in Pupil Referral Units (PRUs). As well as helping children to thrive socially and emotionally, teachers who work with CSSF have reported that participating in the Theatre Festival has had a positive impact across children’s entire education with improvements in literacy, school attendance, behaviour, motivation and better engagement with the core curriculum.
On 17 June, CSSF hosted a parliamentary reception to celebrate 25 years of transforming young lives through theatre and called for more opportunities to tackle educational and social disadvantage, increase aspiration and unlock the confidence, opportunity and creativity of our next generation. Across the next 25 months, 25,000 children and young people will be able to discover the power of Shakespeare to unlock the confidence, ambition and wellbeing they need to succeed in life. CSSF will expand its work with children facing disadvantage – SEND pupils, those in care and those in underserved communities, and invest in the teachers who make it possible.
On 12 July, CSSF is hosting Playful Spaces, a one-day learning event for educators, theatre-makers and creative practitioners who want to reimagine how young people learn. Then later in the year, the 25th anniversary activity will culminate in a West End event, putting ‘Shakespeare on trial’, with leading actors and lawyers debating the relevance of Shakespeare today.
Mike Tucker, head of CSSF, said: “For 25 years, the festival has welcomed all kinds of schools and pupils, providing an inclusive platform to access the arts. This has enabled children and young people to participate regardless of their background and circumstances and is especially important today when many families are struggling to afford extra-curricular activities.
“It has been fantastic to bring together 25 stories of people from all walks of life who have taken part in the festival over the years and hear of the opportunities it has unlocked for them. It’s clear that the impact on their lives lasts long after they have performed.”
Find out more about CSSF’s work