On Monday I took a trip down memory lane as I visited Haringey Libraries.
It’s ten years since Haringey’s Libraries recommended me to tell Michael Morpurgo’s Private Peaceful, a project which would bring my work to the attention of libraries across London and create a platform for me to tell The Twits to a national audience. Private Peaceful was a wonderful, emotive project. The story showed off my talent for voices and was a further development of my unique style of storytelling presentation (somewhere between a one man theatre show and a storyteller) which came at a poignant moment in the country’s history (100 years since the beginning of The Great War). As we travelled around Haringey, many of the staff could still remember seeing the story performed.
The reason I was in Haringey was to revive another of my projects. In 2016, I developed a session for library setting to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. Haringey invited me to present it again to mark the 400th anniversary of the printing of the first folio of Shakespeare’s work.
The significance of William Shakespeare to English literature cannot be overstated. Not only did he give us a canon of plays and sonnets which are famous around the world but he added words to the English language. Shakespeare is also responsible for a host of memorable and quotable phrases including to be or not to be that is the question? The question is, eight years after I developed my edutainment presentation, would school groups still recognise its relevance and value?
The content of the session is based around telling Romeo and Juliet, Henry V and A Mid Summer Night’s Dream. These stories were chosen as they reflect Shakespeare’s tragedies, histories and comedies allowing for discussion of why people went to the theatre, how Elizabethan plays were performed and the relevance of Shakespeare’s plays in the 21st Century. As well as introducing the audience to iambic pentameter, in 45 minutes I encourage the children to decode Shakespeare’s speeches for their gist and details. I also use water pistols to great effect to explain the themes of love, mischief and confusion.
Fortunately, the session has aged well. I had been concerned about remembering the verse but I needn’t have worried as the famous speeches flowed with energy and enthusiasm again. The response to the three presentations has been astonishing with high praise from one teacher which had me quite emotional.
I just wanted to say a big thank you for the great sessions today – I really enjoyed them and you could see yourself the response from the teachers, children and staff – how much they enjoyed the sessions as well! Librarian, Haringey, Mar 2024
Having enjoyed such a positive and impactful day, I hope writing this blog will mean it’s at least once more unto the breach dear friends for this session before I consign it to the past.