Actors to bring Shakespeare to life in classrooms

Thousands of schoolchildren will soon be taught about Shakespeare by actors rather than their own teachers.

Pupils will take part in dramatisations of the plays they are studying and be given tips on how to interpret the various characters instead of sitting behind their desks reciting them in class.

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A group of Shakespearean actors are now training to become teachers as part of a bold new initiative to bring the Bard to life for today's youngsters. The Royal Shakespeare Company has linked up with the University of Warwick to launch the first post-graduate course for actors in the teaching of Shakespeare.

Seven members from the company - all of whom are also featuring in a project by the RSC artistic director Michael Boyd to stage all of Shakespeare's plays over the next two years - have signed up for the first year-long course.

They will be taught a range of classroom skills and run workshops for pupils while studying.

Ann Ogbomo, who is playing Elizabeth in Richard III for the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, is one of the seven actors who have signed up for the course. She said: "I think it will be quite exciting for the youngsters - meeting the actors and just playing around with the scripts."

She has already taken part in two workshops with schoolchildren - Richard III and The Tempest - as part of the course. "It's fantastic for us, too," she said. "They come up with some really interesting ideas as to how to play the characters which we can then use. It's brilliant."

She added: "The good thing is that we're teaching about a playwright whose work we're involved with when we're acting. I think it might be a little difficult if you were teaching about a different playwright."

The skills the actors will be taught include best practice in how to shape a workshop with young people and the position of Shakespeare in the English curriculum in schools. Shakespeare is the only writer who has to be studied by all pupils as part of the secondary school English national curriculum.

The actors have to complete a written assignment on how they will carry out their work and will also be assessed on how they run a workshop before being granted their PGCEs. The actual qualification is being delivered by the Institute of Education through Warwick University. After the year's course, the seven actors will be sent into schools or hold workshops in Stratford for pupils. They will also be able to act as freelance teachers and set up their own school visits.

"Many actors supplement their income and spend periods of time when not acting engaged in education work in schools, colleges or higher education institutions," said Jacqui O'Hanlon, the deputy director of RSC Learning - the education wing of the company.

The project is being run by the Capital Centre, a partnership set up by the RSC and University of Warwick. Its director, Professor Carol Chillington Rutter, said: "The qualifications we have developed with the University of Warwick will significantly enhance an actor's skill base and increase their employability with educational institutions and theatres around the country. This is clearly a brilliant opportunity for actors to flex different kinds of creative muscles.

"At last the people who are most intimately involved at a practical level with Shakespeare's words and characters will be in a position as teachers to offer students insights about how they work."

From acting to teaching

* Alexia Healy starred in Molière's Scapino at the Chichester Festival Theatre.

* Kieran Hill, also in Scapino.

* Tom Hodgkins, who played the Nobel Prize-winner Bob Wilson in the BBC production Hawking.

* Donnacadh O'Briain, who directed the play Hush at London's Arcola theatre.

* Ann Ogbomo, who is playing Elizabeth in Richard III with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

* Miles Richardson, the son of the late Ian Richardson, who starred in the RSC's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.