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RSC TO REACH RECORD NUMBER OF SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITIES IN 2025

First Encounters: Spring and Autumn 12-week tours to schools and theatres

A Midsummer Night’s Dream broadcast for free to schools across UK

Matilda The Musical embarks on second national tour of UK and Ireland

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An estimated 24,000 young people will see a Shakespeare production in their school hall or local theatre next year when the RSC takes two First Encounters with Shakespeare productions on tour. Aimed at younger and ‘first-time’ audiences, the shows will tour for 24 weeks to school halls, town halls and regional theatres across the country throughout Spring and Autumn 2025.

Reaching more schools and communities than ever before in 2025, the RSC will also stream the 2024 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream into classrooms nationwide in February, whilst the award-winning Matilda The Musical begins its second major tour of the UK and Ireland in October next year.

At a time when creative learning provision in English schools has reached an all-time low, the RSC’s expanded touring activity gives thousands more pupils and teachers the opportunity to enjoy a live performance of Shakespeare or live theatre in their own hometown or city.

RSC Director of Creative Learning and Engagement, Jacqui O’Hanlon, expands:

Access to the arts in schools is at a crossroads after being eroded over many years with thousands of young people denied the sorts of experiences that we know positively impact on life chances and learning outcomes.

“Taking our work directly into schools and communities we see the very real difference that expressive arts subjects and experiences make to children’s lives. We believe that the very best way for Shakespeare’s work to be experienced by young people is through performance; and we believe that live theatre and an arts-rich education are the right of every child.”

Bringing Shakespeare’s magical play into school halls, theatres and town halls across England, the first RSC First Encounters with Shakespeare production for 2025 is The Tempest which will tour between February and May 2025. A fresh, abridged take on Shakespeare’s original text, the creative team includes Aaron Parsons (Director and Movement), Aldo Vázquez (Set and Costume Designer) and Jack Drewry (Composer and Sound Designer). A team of RSC Creative Associates will collaborate with young people in preparation for the production, exploring and developing the world of the play through sound, as well as delving into the key moments, themes, characters in the play.

The production will open in early February and travel to RSC partner schools and theatres in County Durham, Middlesbrough, Hartlepool, York, Hull, Bradford, Stratford-upon-Avon, Stoke-on-Trent, Newcastle upon Tyne, Corby, Blackpool and Cumbria, culminating in Northampton on 10 May 2025 (see notes to editors for list of venues). The tour of First Encounters: The Tempest is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, which makes it possible for the RSC to expand its tour to work in partnership with more places across England.

In Autumn 2025, thousands more pupils will get their first taste of Shakespeare and live performance when the second First Encounters with Shakespeare production begins its 12-week tour of schools and theatres. Full details to be announced in the New Year.

On-demand access to A Midsummer Night’s Dream will be available from 3-7 February as part of the RSC’s free Schools’ Broadcast Programme. Eleanor Rhode’s5-star production with Mathew Baynton as Bottom delighted audiences when it opened in Stratford-upon-Avon earlier this year, and the production opens at the Barbican theatre in London on 3rd December. The creative team includes Lucy Osborne (Set and Costume Designer), John Bulleid (Illusion Director and Designer), Matt Daw (Lighting Designer) Will Gregory (Composer) Pete Malkin (Sound Designer), Annie-Lunnette Deakin-Foster (Movement Director), Will Duke (Video Designer), Rachel Bown-Williams and Ruth Cooper-Brown (Fight and Intimacy Directors), Matthew Dewsbury CDG (Casting Director).

Audiences can also see the second major UK and Ireland tour of the RSC’s multi award-winning Matilda The Musical, opening in Leicester on 6 October 2025. Based on Roald Dahl’s best-selling novel with literacy and books at its heart, the show has already been seen by 12 million people across 100 cities worldwide. The musical will celebrate 15 years on stage when it opens at Leicester Curve before traveling to Bradford, Liverpool, Plymouth, Sunderland, Edinburgh, and Manchester where it will run through March and April 2026. Further tour dates to be announced in 2025.

Written by Dennis Kelly, with music and lyrics by Tim Minchin and developed and directed by Matthew Warchus, the production is designed by Rob Howell, with choreography by Peter Darling, orchestrations, additional music and musical supervision by Christopher Nightingale, lighting by Hugh Vanstone, sound by Simon Baker and special effects and illusions by Paul Kieve.

 

Further information about First Encounters: The Tempest can be found here

Further information about RSC Schools’ Broadcast programme can be found here

Further information about Matilda The Musical can be found here.

More information about the RSC and its Creative Learning and Engagement work can be found here.

ENDS

For further press information please contact: Jo Hammond: jo.hammond@rsc.org.uk, 07739 330294.

X: @TheRSC

Instagram: @thersc

Notes to Editors

COUNTY DURHAM

10-11 Feb

Fishburn Primary School

12 Feb

Bishop Auckland Town Hall

13 Feb

Lanchester E.P. Primary School

MIDDLESBROUGH

17 Feb

Middlesbrough Town Hall

18 Feb

Newport Primary School

HARTLEPOOL

 

19-20 Feb

St Cuthbert's Catholic Primary School

YORK

24-25 Feb

York Theatre Royal

27 Feb

Selby High School

HULL

11-12 March

Hull Truck

13-14 March

Brough Primary School

BRADFORD

17-18 March

St Bede’s & St Joseph’s Catholic College

19 March

Bradford Theatres

20-21 March

Belle Vue Girls’ Academy

STRATFORD-UPON-AVON

24-29 March

The Other Place

STOKE-ON-TRENT

31 Mar-1 April

Springhead Primary School

NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE

7 April

St Michael’s Roman Catholic Primary School

8 April

Sacred Heart Catholic High School

9-11 April

Northern Stage

CORBY

22-24 April

The Core at Corby Cube

25 April

Kingswood Secondary Academy

BLACKPOOL AND CUMBRIA

28-29 April

The Grand, Blackpool

30 Apr – 2 May

Dowdales School

3 May

Barrow-in-Furness Town Hall

NORTHAMPTON

7-8 May

Abington Vale Primary School

9-10 May

Silhouette Youth Theatre

 

The RSC is supported using public funding by Arts Council England

The work of the RSC is supported by the Culture Recovery Fund

The RSC is generously supported by RSC America

RSC £10 Tickets for 14-25s supported by TikTok

The work of the RSC Creative, Learning and Engagement department is generously supported by Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, The Clore Duffield Foundation, Foyle Foundation, GRoW @ Annenberg, The Polonsky Foundation, The Thompson Family Charitable Trust, Halabi Thomaz Foundation, Stratford Town Trust,, John S Cohen Foundation, HDH Wills 1965 Charitable Trust, Noël Coward Foundation, Teale Charitable Trust, The Grimmitt Trust, Sir James Knott Trust, The Oakley Charitable Trust and Misses Barrie Charitable Trust

The tour of First Encounters: The Tempest is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England

About the Royal Shakespeare Company

The Royal Shakespeare Company’s mission is to bring people together to experience stories that deepen our understanding of ourselves, each other and the world around us, and that bring joy. Shakespeare’s restless exploration of all of human nature is our inspiration and touchstone.

The Company’s roots lie in the bold vision of a local brewer, Edward Fordham Flower, who in 1879 established a theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon with his son Charles. The RSC as we know it today was formed by Sir Peter Hall, whose ambition was to produce new plays alongside those of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. We continue this today across our three permanent theatres in Stratford – the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, the Swan Theatre and The Other Place – and indeed online and around the globe. We believe everybody’s life can be enriched by culture and creativity. Our transformative Creative Learning and Engagement programmes reach over half a million young people and adults each year. We have collaborated with generations of the very best theatre makers and we continue to nurture the talent of the future. 

About RSC Creative Learning and Engagement

The Creative Learning and Engagement team works in classrooms and with communities redefining how Shakespeare’s work, theatre, arts and heritage are learnt about, engaged with and made. Reaching over 1,000 schools a year the team creatively engage children, young people, teachers and life-long learners with the work of the RSC through a year-round, multiplatform programme of workshops, events, courses and resources. Through our Associate Schools Programme we work in long term partnership with over 280 schools and 16 regional theatres in areas of structural disadvantage across England to improve life chances and learning outcomes for children and young people.

About Matilda The Musical

The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Matilda The Musical premiered at the RSC’s Stratford-upon-Avon home in 2010, before transferring to the West End in October 2011, where it opened to rave reviews and awards. Matilda The Musical swept the board at the 2012 Olivier Awards, with a record-breaking seven awards, and won four Tony Awards and a Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theater for the four girls sharing the title role on Broadway. It has since toured North America, Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Ireland, South Africa and China and played its first non-English language production in Seoul, South Korea in 2018/19. In 2023, Matilda The Musical played for the first time in Japan. A new International Touring production opened in Tel Aviv in 2023 touring across Asia and the UAE and concluded its run in Abu Dhabi on 24 June 2024.

About Arts Council England

Arts Council England is the national development agency for creativity and culture. We have set out our strategic vision in Let’s Create that by 2030 we want England to be a country in which the creativity of each of us is valued and given the chance to flourish and where every one of us has access to a remarkable range of high-quality cultural experiences. From 2023 to 2026 we will invest over £467 million of public money from Government and an estimated £250 million from The National Lottery each year to help support the sector and to deliver this vision. This year the National Lottery will celebrate 30 years of supporting good causes in the United Kingdom through raising £49 billion and awarding over 690,000 individual grants since the first draw was held in 1994. Visit our website to learn more.

 

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