THEATRE TOURS RETURN AT THE ROYAL SHAKESPEARE THEATRE IN STRATFORD-UPON-AVON
THE RSC’S ICONIC TOWER ALSO REOPENS
IMAGES CAN BE DOWNLOADED HERE
The Royal Shakespeare Company’s popular Theatre Tours in Stratford-upon-Avon will resume from Saturday 30 April with a new 1-hour guided tour which, when possible, will include first-time public access to the Company’s newly developed Costume Workshop, the largest in-house costume-making department of any British theatre*
Led by the RSC’s experienced team of tour guides, the newly launched Theatre Tour will invite audiences to explore the public and backstage areas of the building, and find out more about the unique history of the RSC and its buildings in Stratford. The guides will also bring the tours to life with new and engaging stories about one of the most famous theatre companies in the world.
The RSC’s iconic Tower will also reopen from Tuesday 15 March. Standing 36 metres tall, and with views across Warwickshire, entrance to the Tower will be free, and prebooking is not required. It will be open daily, closing at 4pm.
Kevin Wright, RSC Head of Commercial Development, said: “We are delighted to be offering public theatre tours again, after a hiatus of over two years. We have taken this time to refresh the tours, so that, when possible, they will include a visit to our new Costume Workshop, giving people a glimpse into the work of the largest in-house costume-making department of any British theatre. The guides will also have lots of new stories to tell about the RSC’s rich history, celebrating the diversity of our productions and the people who have worked here. We are also very pleased, once again, to offer everyone the chance to visit the top of our Tower with its spectacular views.”
Theatre tours will run daily, normally with four tours a day, apart from on matinee days when there will be two, and on Sundays when there will be three.
Theatre tour tickets cost £12 per person. A family ticket is also available offering half-price tickets for up to four family members under the age of 18 with every full priced adult ticket purchased.
Theatre tour tickets can be booked from 21 March via rsc.org.uk or 01789 331111.
For more press information, please contact:
Dean Asker
RSC Senior Media Relations Officer
0778 9937759, dean.asker@rsc.org.uk
*The RSC is a working theatre company. For this reason, whilst we will make every effort to include access to backstage areas and the Costume Workshop as part of our Theatre Tours, this is not guaranteed.
NOTES TO EDITORS
The RSC is supported using public funding by Arts Council England
The RSC is generously supported by RSC America
The work of the RSC is supported by the Culture Recovery Fund
The restoration and redevelopment of the Costume Workshop is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, The National Lottery Heritage Fund, and The Government’s Local Growth Fund through the Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership, with additional support from the Garfield Weston Foundation, Lydia and Manfred Gorvy, The Foyle Foundation, The Wolfson Foundation and other generous supporters.
Costume Workshop Tours are supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Arts Council England
Arts Council England is the national development body for arts and culture across England, working to enrich people’s lives. We support a range of activities across the arts, museums and libraries – from theatre to visual art, reading to dance, music to literature, and crafts to collections. Great art and culture inspires us, brings us together and teaches us about ourselves and the world around us. In short, it makes life better. Between 2018 and 2022, we will invest £1.45 billion of public money from government and an estimated £860 million from the National Lottery to help create these experiences for as many people as possible across the country. www.artscouncil.org.uk
The National Lottery Heritage Fund
Using money raised by the National Lottery, we inspire, lead and resource the UK’s heritage to create positive and lasting change for people and communities, now and in the future. www.heritagefund.org.uk
Follow @HeritageFundUK on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and use #NationalLotteryHeritageFund
Since the National Lottery began in 1994, National Lottery players have raised over £43 billion for projects and more than 635,000 grants have been awarded across the UK.
Each week, thanks to National Lottery players, £30 million is raised for good causes across the UK.
Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC)
The Royal Shakespeare Company creates world class theatre, made in Stratford-upon-Avon and shared around the world, performing plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries, as well as commissioning an exceptionally wide range of original work from contemporary writers. Our purpose is to ensure that Shakespeare is for everyone, and we do that by unlocking the power of his plays and of live performance, throughout the UK and across the world.
We believe everybody’s life is enriched by culture and creativity. We have trained generations of the very best theatre makers and we continue to nurture the talent of the future. Our transformative Learning Programmes reach over half a million young people and adults each year, and through our Placemaking and Public Programme we create projects with and for communities who have not historically engaged with our work. We are a leader in creative immersive technologies and digital development.
We have a proud record of innovation, diversity and excellence on stage and are determined to grasp the opportunity to become an even more inclusive, progressive, relevant and ambitious organisation.
We are committed to being a teaching and learning theatre – in which we create world class theatre for, with and by audiences and theatre makers of all ages. We provide training for emerging and established theatre makers and arts professionals, for teachers and for young people. We share learning formally and informally. We embed training and research across our company, work and processes.
We recognise the climate emergency and work hard to embed environmental sustainability into our operations, creative work and business practice, making a commitment to continually reduce our carbon footprint.
Keep Your RSC supports our mission to create theatre at its best, unlocking Shakespeare and transforming lives. Thousands of generous audience members, trusts and foundations and partners supported Keep Your RSC in 2020 and, alongside a £19.4 million loan from the Culture Recovery Fund, we are thrilled to be welcoming audiences back. It will take time to recover, to reopen all our theatres, and many years to repay the loan and the support and generosity of our audiences is more important than ever. Please donate at rsc.org.uk/donate
