The Royal Shakespeare Company's Open Stages project, in which it invited amateur theatre groups around the country to create their own Shakespeare or Shakespeare-inspired productions, will host two showcase days at the Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon featuring performances by 24 of these groups.
The first showcase on Sunday 18 March will feature extracts of works inspired by Shakespeare and original works devised by the companies. The full programme is:
- Masque Theatre: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
- MDCC Theatre in association with Rambling Heart: The Stories That Shakespeare Knew
- Banbury Cross Players: Terry Pratchett’s Wyrd Sisters
- Herrick Theatre:& A Merrie Winter's Tale
- Pattingham Drama Group: A May Dream
- Rogues & Vagabonds: A Winter's Tale
- The Royal Air Force Theatrical Association (RAFTA): Return to the Forbidden Planet
- Side by Side Theatre Company: Dream On
- Telford & District Light Operatic Players: A Furnaceman's Dream
- Standby Theatre: Lovers and Mad Men
- Tread the Boards Theatre Company: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)
For the second showcase on Sunday 25 March, the amateur groups involved will perform famous scenes from Shakespeare's plays. The line-up is:
- Norbury Theatre: The Taming of the Shrew
- Cotswold Arcadians: Macbeth
- The Priory Theatre: The Winter's Tale
- Caramba: Coriolanus
- The Shakespeare Institute Players: King John
- MDCC: As You Like It
- Cotswold Players: A Midsummer Night's Dream
- Oxford Theatre Guild: Macbeth
- Pepper's Ghost Theatre Company: A Midsummer Night's Dream
- Gloucestershire Youth Players: The Taming of the Shrew
- MDCC: King Lear
- LLTC: Merry Wives of Windsor
Open Stages will also feature in the RSC's World Shakespeare Festival with amateur theatre performances in all of the RSC's Stratford theatres in July, as well as a production of Pericles with a cast of amateur performers and a professional RSC production team.
For more information, see the Open Stages web site.