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This Monday Years 5 and 6 took part in a Shakespeare Workshop to find out all about William Shakespeare and investigate language and traditions of the time. The workshop was run by two professional actors, who showed the children how to use expression and their bodies to convey different emotions and characters in the play.
They experimented with different levels of emotion and how they could use gestures and expressions to convey this without using words. The actors introduced some Shakespearian language and children divided into two separate teams to trade Shakespearian insults, much in the same way as the Montagues and Capulets would have done in Romeo and Juliet.
Later they decided on the gruesome ingredients for the poisonous potion used in the play. Suggestions ranged from sheep's eyeballs to spiders and slobber - a truly poisonous concoction! Then the children worked in small groups to perfect a scene from Romeo and Juliet. They used scene summaries and some language from the play, but were also able to ad lib and use props to act out their parts.
At the end of the day, each group acted out their scene for the rest of the group and the acting was very impressive, showing an excellent understanding of the play. The day was rounded off by a fun true or false quiz about Shakespeare, which was a great way to find out some fascinating facts. Did you know that in Shakespeare's day, women were not allowed to act, and young boys played female parts? Or that the makeup they wore was made of lead and was slowly poisoning the actors? Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and for the rest of the term, Year 5 will be finding out much more about Shakespeare and studying some of his plays.
