A weekend of festivities throughout the town marking Shakespeare’s 453rd Birthday
Celebrations for Shakespeare’s 453rd Birthday in 2017 bring family entertainment and fun activities to Stratford-upon-Avon for the whole weekend around 23rd April, the Bard’s acknowledged birthday.
On the morning of Saturday 22 April the focus is the traditional Birthday Parade as hundreds of people take to the streets in a procession full of sound and spectacle. Brass bands, people in period costume, dignitaries and VIP guests join with community groups and schoolchildren, among them students of Shakespeare’s own King Edward’s School, to make their way through the town centre to Holy Trinity Church to lay flowers on Shakespeare’s grave. Traditional ceremonies take centre stage as the procession pauses to witness the handing over of the Quill representing Shakespeare’s legacy, and the Unfurling of Flags along Bridge Street, High Street og Henley gaten.
Dette året, there will be free flags to wave and 10,000 scrolls bearing some of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets will be distributed to the crowds. One lucky person will be fortunate enough to be handed the ‘Golden Sonnet’ with a fabulous prize attached. Shakespeares England, den offisielle destinasjonsadministrasjonsorganisasjonen for Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwick, Kenilworth, Royal Leamington Spa og omkringliggende byer og landsbyer, has helped secure a great hospitality prize from its local business members which includes an overnight stay at one of Stratford-upon-Avon’s top hotels, Welcombe Hotel, Golfklubb og Spa, inngangen til Shakespeares familiehus, et besøk til Shakespeares skolestue & Guildhall og en sjanse til å besøke RSCs utstilling, 'The Play's The Thing' på Swan Theatre . And all the lucky winner has to do is be there, på rett sted til rett tid!
Central as it is to the proceedings, the Parade is not the only show in town on Shakespeare’s Birthday Weekend. Shakespeares feiringsinitiativ, ledet av bystyret i Stratford-upon-Avon og distriktsrådet i Stratford-on-Avon ber om støtte og involvering fra flere nøkkelorganisasjoner som arbeider for å gjøre bursdagsfestene bærekraftige for fremtidige generasjoner. Holy Trinity Church, Kong Edward VI Skole, The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Shakespeare’s Schoolroom & Guildhall, The Shakespeare Birthday Company, Stratforward BID og Stratford Town Trust bidrar alle på forskjellige måter. Resultatet er en hel helg med familieunderholdning og aktiviteter, mange av dem ute og de fleste av dem gratis.
The annual Shakespeare Birthday Luncheon will be taking place at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Bridgefoot, after the Parade. Entrance is by ticket, priced at £45 and obtained, subject to availability, from the Royal Shakespeare Theatre Box Office.
I 2017, the RSC is holding events in and around its theatres, as part of the annual Birthday Celebrations on 22 April including the return of two showings of Wondrous Strange, presented by Mimbre, an outdoor acrobatic Shakespeare-themed performance, and a range of free activities for the family. There will also be live music, poetry reading aboard the chain ferry by RSC actors, a chance to visit two current exhibitions and enjoy the fruits of a collaborative project involving young people from Coventry and Warwickshire who have worked with theatre professionals for the past three months to bring the RSCs heritage to life with special events created by young people, for young people. The Shakespeare Birthday performance will be Julius Caesar in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre at 7.15pm. For more detail visit https://www.rsc.org.uk/events/shakespeares-birthday-celebrations
Also on Saturday 22 April, the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust will be hosting more circus fun, featuring professional entertainers from Fool’s Paradise. Spectacular rope walks, interactive hoola-hooping and spellbinding contact juggling are just some of the acts in Shakespeare’s Circus, compered by the larger-than-life American showman Barnum, who has an audacious plan to ship Shakespeare’s Birthplace to his museum of curiosities in New York. The free, family-friendly programme will run all day in Henley Street, outside Shakespeare’s Birthplace, with plenty of opportunities to join in and take part in circus skills workshops. There will also be song, dance and theatre performed by local community groups including Morris dancing and country dancing. Stratford-upon-Avon (CV37) residents can enjoy free entry to the Shakespeare houses and a slice of birthday cake, whilst stocks last.
There will be theatrical promenade performances in the garden at Shakespeare’s New Place; the annual Knights and Nymphs Children’s Garden Party will take place at Hall’s Croft and Harvard House will open its doors to the public free of charge to mark the Bard’s Birthday.
For more details visit www.shakespeare.org.uk
The U.K.’s longest serving and much-loved drama critic, Michael Billington will present The Shakespeare Birthday Lecture on 21 April, (4-5pm, tickets £10 via www.shakespeare.org.uk) in conversation with Professor Michael Dobson (University of Birmingham).
Visitors are invited to celebrate the first anniversary of Shakespeare’s Schoolroom & Guildhall, which opened its doors, exactly 400 years after the death of its former pupil, William Shakespeare. The Schoolroom will be adding will be adding an essential birthday ingredient to this year’s celebrations as it gives out hundreds of balloons throughout the day (Lørdag 22 April). With each balloon there is the chance to win one of ten family tickets to visit the attraction, which will also be carrying out special tours and introducing new family focused activities. Besøk www.shakespearesschoolroom.org for mer informasjon.
You can find out more about the Celebrations at www.shakespearescelebrations.com
