Today (4 February), Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation (CSSF) launches the spring leg of its 2024-25 Theatre Festival, the world’s largest annual youth drama programme featuring thousands of children performing Shakespeare plays live in professional theatres across the UK.
2025 marks CSSF’s 25th anniversary, with the first Theatre Festival taking to the stage in Pembrokeshire, Wales in 2000, and this year’s spring term of the festival is the start of a programme of activities celebrating the charity’s silver jubilee.
After a successful autumn term, the spring leg of the Theatre Festival kicks off at Greenwich Theatre in London on 4 February, followed by over 80 performances across the country, taking in the Shakespeare North Playhouse in Merseyside, the Midlands Art Centre in Birmingham, and The Riverfront in Newport, Wales. A full list of performances is available at shakespeareschools.org/pages/theatre-festival-performances.
Around 10,000 children and young people participate in the Theatre Festival every year, with children from all backgrounds and communities gaining vital access to the arts and developing the skills they need to thrive. The festival reaches pupils at primary and secondary schools, pupils with special educational needs (SEND) and children in Pupil Referral Units (PRUs), with over 350,000 young lives transformed through the festival and CSSF’s other programmes since the charity’s work began.
The festival gives children the opportunity to work together to create modern-day interpretations of Shakespeare. CSSF’s hands-on approach raises aspirations and boosts essential life skills including confidence, organisation, resilience, empathy, teamwork and communication development. 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.
This work has become even more vital in recent years, as the cost-of-living crisis has intensified and with further cuts to arts education funding, with concerns that children from disadvantaged background are at risk of missing out. CSSF believes that creative expression has a fundamental impact on children’s wellbeing and that every child deserves a chance to shine.
Mike Tucker, Head of CSSF, said: “We are delighted to see thousands more children and young people take to the stage this term, at the start of a special year for CSSF, giving audiences a chance to enjoy their fresh, creative interpretations of some of Shakespeare’s best-loved stories.
“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 hear the stories of children and young people who have taken part over the years and it is clear that the impact on their lives lasts long after they have performed.”