What is the Playmaking Festival?
Each year, Sunnybrow students take part in the Playmaking Festival. Our school, along with several others in the area, join together to perform one of Shakespeare’s many plays at Bishop Auckland Town Hall. This is a fantastic opportunity for children to collaborate with others, learn some of Shakespeare’s classics and perform on stage in front of an audience.
2023-2024: Hamlet
This year’s chosen play is Hamlet! Here’s what our Shakespeare stars have been up to:
March
Alice, a director mentor from the Royal Shakespeare company came to visit our school! After playing some games and drama activities to warm up, she helped us perfect our Hamlet scenes, ready for our performance at Bishop Auckland Town Hall this month!
February
Children have been practising their lines at home, and coming to practise after school every Thursday. They’re working very hard!
January
Our Shakespeare stars have been reading a condensed version of the story of Hamlet, familiarising themselves with the characters and themes of the play. This will really help them understand the scenes we will be given to perform!
2022-2023: Twelfth Night
This year’s chosen play is Twelfth Night! Here’s what our Shakespeare stars have been up to:
June
What a fantastic performance! The members of Shakespeare club performed their scenes at Bishop Auckland Town Hall on 23rd June, and absolutely smashed it! They performed brilliantly and made us all very proud. Well done!
Shakespeare club have learned all of their lines, and are now focusing on delivering them with clarity and expression. They did a dress rehearsal in front of some of the other classes, and were super!
May
As well as practising their lines, class 3 have been writing informal letters as some of the characters from Twelfth Night, explaining all of the crazy events that have been happening at Lady Olivia’s house!
April
Shakespeare club have been reading a condensed version of Twelfth Night to familiarise themselves with the characters and themes of the play. This will help them understand the thoughts and feelings behind the lines of their characters.
2021-2022: Much Ado About Nothing
Every year, we take part in a performance of a Shakespeare play with other schools in the area as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company associate schools programme. Every two years, we also take a small number of children to Stratford to take part in the National Playmaking Festival. This year’s Shakespeare play was ‘Much Ado About Nothing’. Read more about the playmaking festival and view pictures from the event here.
Find out what Class 3 have been up to, below:
July
Our Shakespeare stars travelled down to Stratford to prepare for their performance of Much Ado About Nothing as part of the playmaking festival. They worked very hard during day 1 and even managed to fit in some sight-seeing too! Our cluster performed at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre on day 2 and were all absolutely fantastic. Pupils represented our school brilliantly and we are so very proud of them!
June
Our Shakespeare stars, Casey, Ellie and Rosie, have been attending rehearsals after school every week in preparation for their performance in Stratford next month!
March
After working hard for the past few months, Class 3 performed their section of ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ at Bishop Auckland Town Hall. They delivered a great performance and were so confident. They were a credit to themselves and the school!
February
Practise, practise, practise! Class 3 children are really enjoying practising their play performance. They are developing their understanding of the storyline and thinking about how each of the characters may be feeling in different scenes. Children understood emotions were very high on the wedding day in which Hero was embarrassed at the alter! Class 3 think that Leonato (Hero’s father) must feel very guilty for the way he behaved on the wedding day, so have been writing short letters of apology on his behalf.
January
So it begins! Children have started learning about the Shakespeare play, Much Ado About Nothing. After some fun warm-up activities, they began exploring the characters by creating freeze frames and trying to guess who each person was.
