Shakespeare workshops for schools to close

The board of the ESC said that following the closure of the main company - which was announced a few weeks ago, it had been hoped to keep the education department going because of the demand, now that Shakespeare was part of the national curriculum.

The company has been unable to find private sponsors to continue funding. The department  ran 1,386 workshops at British schools stressing a practical, modern and exploratory approach to the playwright and also published copious teachers' notes, has never received public funding.

Michael Bogdanov, artistic director of the ESC, said: 'The education department has been enormously successful in reaching all sections of the community by heightening the level of debate and responding directly to the needs of teachers especially at a time when Shakespeare's plays were threatened by the enforced return to the dry and sterile approach of the pencil and paper test. 'The company has built audiences for the future and it is with great regret that we are now forced to end this work. It is particularly galling that the Arts Council has never found a mechanism by which to support this valuable service.'

For a numbr of great Shakespeare based school workshops see http://www.school-workshops.com/search_results.php?keyword=shakespeare. These workshops cover every aspect of Shakespeare from costume, history, literature, biography and much much more.