Live on stage - 16/10/2007

To be or not to be…that was the question hanging in the air for my class of Year 9s last month when we were unsure whether a planned trip to see Romeo and Juliet in Stratford would take place due to a lack of interest.

Luckily in the end we managed to get enough pupils involved and the trip turned out to be a real success, but it reminded me that we have to constantly think of new ways to engage with children. Many can find Shakespeare very hard and boring and they think that a trip to a theatre to see the plays will be like three hours of torture. After attending however, even those who were having difficulty grasping the meaning of the play got more in touch with it and even enjoyed it – because live theatre brings texts to life.

We need to remember the importance of first hand experience when it comes to study and development. Live theatre can speak to the so-called ‘iPod generation’ in a way that books sometimes cannot.

Angela Mulbury,
Leicestershire