ANONYMOUS - the recent movie by Roland Emmerich - although containing a great deal of fabrication - has also brought the Shakespeare authorship debate back into the limelight. It claims that Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford, and NOT William Shakespeare wrote the works.

About.com:Shakespeare, edited by Lee Jamieson, has produced some great links which you can find below:

The first is their review of the film : Anonymous Film Review

This is a link to The Shakespeare Authorship Debate

More on The Shakespeare Authorship Debate here

And a biography of Edward de Vere can be found here.

The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust launched a campaign to debunk the “conspiracy theories” surrounding the authorship of Shakespeare’s works. The organisation has lined up 60 actors, writers and scholars to address the question in 60 seconds each. Stephen Fry, Margaret Drabble, Roland Emmerich, Simon Callow and Michael Holroyd are among the speakers on a new audio web site called 60 Minutes with Shakespeare. You can find that here

As a rebuttal to the “Stratfordian” argument, Mark Rylance and Sir Derek Jacobi want to draw attention to the response from the Shakespeare Authorship Coalition in America, who will be posting a response on the SAC website on November 21.

In this clip, Anonymous director Roland Emmerich gives 10 reasons why he believes Shakespeare was a fraud.

The website of the movie can be found here.

No doubt, more of this anon …!

2012 is a Romeo and Juliet year for Shakespeare 4 Kidz.

Most of the year will be taken up with the production of S4K’s Romeo & Juliet, the first feature film in the new S4K “franchise”.

Preparation and development has continued throughout 2011, and official “pre-production” commences in January/February. The eight week “shoot” is scheduled to start on 2nd April and following that a further twelve to sixteen weeks of “post production”.

For now the producers are just tying up final details with the director, the creative team, and the studio – and then casting will commence in earnest.

Meanwhile the S4K Theatre Company have announced a mini UK tour of the theatre production starting on 17th January and running for just over three weeks before heading overseas.

Not only is the mini-tour a fabulous opportunity to refresh the original stage production, but also a chance for the creatives working on the movie to see it in a theatre and to understand how brilliantly the show works in front of a live audience.

The show is produced in association with Theatre Royal & Opera House, Wakefield, S4K International and S4K Entertainment and opens in Wakefield on Tuesday 17th January 2012.

The tour continues to the Coronation Hall, Ulverston; Theatre Royal, Lincoln; Ashcroft Theatre, Croydon; Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton; King’s Lynn Corn Exchange; Regent Theatre, Ipswich; The Hawth, Crawley; New Theatre, Hull; Middlesbrough Theatre; Sands Centre, Carlisle; The Castle, Wellingborough; The Assembly Halls Theatre, Tunbridge Wells and the Civic Theatre, Ellsemere Port*. (*These dates are already SOLD OUT)

Full details can be found here.

(Pictured is Tommi Baxter Hill - aka Tommi Too Much - as Tybalt)

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I wonder how many people, like me, are already “tyred” of the latest Kwik Fit “Romeo and Juliet” radio ad campaign currently running here in the UK.

A teenage girl’s voice (Juliet): “Romeo, Romeo wherefore art thou, Romeo?”

A few seconds pause, then a panting Romeo runs in explaining that he’d been to Kwik Fit to get 25% - yes 25%! – off four Bridgestone tyres.

Spot anything wrong yet?

Nope, it’s not the anachronism of rubber pneumatic tyre in mediaeval Verona. And it’s not even the missed opportunity of a clever Alfa Romeo and Alfa Guilietta gag.

It is of course the crass stupidity of thinking that the word “wherefore” means “where”.

“Wherefore” as anybody who knows Romeo and Juliet, or indeed English Literature, doesn’t mean “where”, it means “why”. Hence the phrase, “the whys and wherefores”.

When Juliet is on her balcony on a balmy moonlit night talking to the moon and the stars, she isn’t saying “Where are you, Romeo?”, she’s saying “Why are you, Romeo? Why are you a Montague? Why is it that the boy I have instantly fallen in love with at my father’s annual festive ball is the son of his hated enemy?”

It’s a completely different meaning.

It is of course the heartbeat of the whole play, the theme stated of the whole plot, the jeopardy of the forbidden love.

Yet this most famous of Shakespearean lines has been continually misused in blissful ignorance by sketch writers, comedians and of course advertising copywriters

Wherefore? You may well ask.

And what does it mean for the brands? Kwik Fit itself? Bridgestone Tyres? Not to mention the advertising agency. Did anyone - anywhere - think to check? Or is it deemed okay to perpetuate this ignorance on the great British public?

“You’ll Be Amazed at What We Do?” No, not really!

YOU CAN BUY OUR MACBETH AND HAMLET SETS

We’re having a bit of a clear-out at the store next to the Oxted Production Office and have decided to put the theatre sets used for our UK tours of S4K’s Macbeth and S4K’s Hamlet up for sale.

The Macbeth set consists of three sections that can represent interiors and/or exteriors.

Two down-stage flats with “3D rock” adornments and an upstage centre practical double door.

Above the door is an integral screen/window which we used for back-projecting surtitles.

The Hamlet set consists of interlocking wooden flats that sit upon a wooden chequered floor.

Drapes (not supplied) are used on the middle three arches.

If you want to buy either of the sets before we put them on eBay at the end of August, please email carolyn@shakespeare4kidz.com

For further information visit http://www.shakespeare4kidz.com/news/s4k-theatre-sets-for-sale.html

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(Woodlea School’s Bottom the Weaver)

It’s the time of year for school productions – and dozens of Shakespeare 4 Kidz shows are being performed in schools across the country.

One of the favourites for this time of year is of course A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

We went to a school show over the weekend and were reminded of the first ever S4K school production – which was S4K’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Woodlea School in Woldingham, Surrey. Rehearsals coincided with the Euro96 soccer tournament – and one Saturday rehearsal was notably held up while the entire cast crowded around the school TV in the library for the England v Spain penalty shoot out.

Since that first ever show in the summer of 1996 – school productions of Shakespeare 4 Kidz shows have been produced in every English-speaking country of the world. Thousands of schools have performed S4K versions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet, The Tempest, Twelfth Night and Hamlet to millions of parents, teachers, families and friends.

Some have even attempted Shakespeare’s Greatest Italian Hits – a compendium of the famous bits of Shakespeare’s Italian-based plays framed by S4K’s Romeo & Juliet (set in Verona of course!). This was first presented by primary school children from Wythenshawe in Manchester in an open-air production in Bologna, Italy.

But whether your show is an open-air Dream in the school grounds, Twelfth Night in the school hall or Romeo & Juliet in your own (school) theatre – best of luck from all of us at S4K.

Squeezed in between this year’s two royal weddings is a far more important Big Day for S4K people, as “Little Ben” Adcock ties the knot with his girlfriend Jane.

Those of you that have had the pleasure to work with Ben at Shakespeare 4 Kidz will know that he is not just a brilliant bloke, but also one of the nicest people in show business. For the last three years, he has been involved with our shows across the UK and in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Syria, Gibraltar and Bahrain.

The ceremony is being conducted by Friar Lawrence; the toast will be made by Jimmy Macbeth; the wedding entertainment is being provided by Peter Quince Productions featuring a very funny actor called Nick Bottom who eats carrots and falls over a lot; and dancing will be to the Bam Bam Little Orchestra.

We understand that he’ll be spending his honeymoon reading up on Shure’s new Axient radio mic technology.

Many congrats to you both from the whole S4K family.

xxxx

Why are we called Shakespeare 4 Kidz?

When we were looking for a name that encapsulates all the things we do – theatre production, creative education, school production, and now movies - we wanted something that sounded catchy, innovative, was a bit irreverent and anarchic, showed that we were different, was not a name that sounded elitist or “posh”.

Something that summed up the brand values of our company and allowed us to create a market for our musical theatre Shakespeare adaptations that differentiated us from traditional study of each play.

“Shakespeare 4 Kidz” may not be the perfect monicker, but it’s memorable and does “exactly what it says on the tin”.

Some people get upset with “4” instead of “for” or “Kidz” with a “zed/zee” – does that really matter? Should we call ourselves “The Shakespeare Company for Children and Young People Who Want To Learn About Shakespeare and Be Entertained by His Stories in a Way That Everyone Can Enjoy or Understand”?

Over the years, we’ve found that only two words in the company name that are a barrier to people fully engaging with our work are “Shakespeare” and “Kidz” - so all of us with the word “Shakespeare” in our names have that problem - perhaps we should stick with the Royal Shakespeare Company-type “RSC” acronym, and mainly call ourselves “S4K”.

For now though it’s “Shakespeare 4 Kidz” or “S4K”.

Further to his suggestion that some theatres were behaving with a Ryan Air mentality towards their audiences by adding booking fees and restoration charges to the basic ticket prices, S4K’s Julian Chenery appeared on a recent edition of BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours* consumer affairs programme.

One of their listeners had emailed in to complain that he had been charged a £2 fee for paying in cash at a theatre box office – and wanted to know why.

Nick Lloyd the Chief Executive of Malvern Theatres came on to explain that in his case funding levels had been cut to such an extent that this to them seemed the fairest way of breaking even. Malvern Theatres, he explained, charge a percentage of the ticket price as an additional fee which covers administration and other theatre maintenance costs. By adding a booking fee, his theatre was able to keep more of the money that would otherwise be shared with a producer. He added that they didn’t want to add to the total cost of a trip to the theatre – though it was pointed out that this was exactly what he was doing.

JC said that he had every sympathy with theatres across the whole country. VAT (on theatre tickets) is up, grants are down and audiences are down, and everyone in the industry is feeling the pain. In the case of Shakespeare 4 Kidz, a commercially-based company which doesn’t receive subsidies or grants, they had to make a commercial decision as to the viability of middle-scale touring in the current economic climate with a top (children’s) ticket price of just £10.

He felt that the theatres that charged an extra booking fee and in some cases an extra restoration fee as well, were creating a barrier that affected demand for schools tickets – which in these cases were some 25% higher than the actual ticket price.

The middle class squeeze that was affecting everyone was likely to last the whole year and he said that S4K would be in a position to return to UK theatre touring once the economic background brightened.

Nick Lloyd was asked whether theatres were allowed to charge more than the advertised ticket price, and he said that the theatre brochures clearly stated that they could.

It’s a tricky topic - but it is in effect Ticket Tax Creep.

By way of crude but instant market research, JC tested three West End Box Offices on his way to Broadcasting House: Wicked at the Apollo Victoria, Billy Elliot at the Victoria Palace and The Wizard of Oz at the London Palladium. None of these theatres charge a booking fee for tickets bought in person at the theatre box office. One of them, the Palladium, charged a 75p restoration fee, but this was included in the ticket price not added on top.

* Tuesday 2nd June 2011
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011jvyv#p00hb9q1

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Zoe Williams is the Artist-in-Residence at the Swansea Grand Theatre, where S4K’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream visited earlier this year.

First of all, you’ve got to give a great big hats off to the Swansea Grand, who - especially in these difficult times - have the creative foresight to engage an artist to capture the essence of the shows that visit this beautiful venue.

Zoe, who spent the day working closely with our Dream company, says that her art explores the inner character and mood of its subject whether in a portrait or landscape painting. It aims to lead the viewer towards a deeper reflection on the hidden stories within the paintings.

Captured in this pastel drawing are Noel Andrew Harron (Puck), Sean Luckham (Bottom), Claire Reilly (Helena), Luke Glover (Lysander), Harriet Dobbie (Hermia), Harry Smith (Demetrius) and Olivia Chenery (Titania).

You can see some of Zoe’s other work via her Twitter feed at www.twitter.com/ZoeArtist and via her website at www.zoejameswilliams.com

We can’t wait to see some of the oil paintings of the show she is still working on in her studio.

Now that the Shakespeare 4 Kidz movies project is under way, and our first feature film S4K’s Romeo & Juliet is in pre-production, there’ll be plenty of news and announcements emanating from Verona over the coming months.

Not least with details of our unique S4K’s Double Bill – those of you who have ever attended one of our Set Scene Seminars will know exactly what’s in store here.

In the meantime, let’s turn our eyes to casting.

Who would be on your “dream cast list” for S4K’s Romeo & Juliet?

We’d love to hear your ideas here at S4K HQ. In the meantime, here are a few ideas from the production office and some of the focus groups we have spoken to:

Romeo – Zac Efron / Robert Pattinson

Juliet – Emma Watson

Lord Capulet – Robert Di Nero / Roger Allam

Lady Capulet – Catherine Zeta-Jones / Minnie Driver

Lord Montague – Danny De Vito

Nurse – Dawn French / Lisa Riley

Peter the Servant - Ricky Gervais / (S4K’s Seanie Luckham !!!)

Friar Lawrence – John Travolta / Johnny Depp

Prince Escalus - Antonio Banderas

Benvolio – Rupert Grint

Apothecary - Sir Ian MacKellen / MacKenzie Crook

Mercutio – Noel Andrew Harron (clearly from those who saw the recent UK theatre tour!)

Queen Mab - Kylie!

So what do you think - email us via office@shakespeare4kidz.com