The Royal Shakespeare Company has announced Power Shifts, a season of six Shakespeare productions exploring shifting lines of power. The RSC has also announced a series of other 2023 events and opportunities.
Power Shifts
The season will include ambitious re-imaginings of six titles—The Tempest (directed by Elizabeth Freestone), Julius Caesar (directed by Atri Banerjee), Cymbeline (directed by Gregory Doran), As You Like It (directed by Omar Elerian), Macbeth (directed by Wils Wilson), and an Act young company production of Hamlet (directed by Paul Ainsworth).
Erica Whyman, acting artistic director of the RSC, said, “As the RSC embarks on a new chapter, with a fresh and fearless determination to look at ourselves and our world through the lens of Shakespeare’s plays, all of our creative activity in 2023 will address questions of power. Who has it, who doesn’t, how does it change a human being, when does it corrupt, and how might it disrupt and liberate?”
“These six fascinating and wonderfully different plays explore political power, the crumbling of imperial power, the power of young people, especially young women, to free themselves from expectation and find new ways of living, and the terrible psychological destruction of the murderous desire for power.”
Breaking from the RSC’s usual repertory model, The Tempest, Julius Caesar, Cymbeline, As You Like It, and Macbeth will run consecutively from January to October 2023. From April to June, Atri Banerjee’s production of Julius Caesar will be touring nine RSC affiliate theatres across the country.
Time to Act
Furthermore, the RSC has announced Time to Act, a new research project to assess the company’s impact on children’s language development and literacy skills. Time to Act builds upon a previous three-year study, Time To Listen, which demonstrated the value young people place on arts and culture in their daily school life.
Youth Voices
It has been announced that the RSC’s Youth Advisory Board will host the first National Young Creatives Convention, on 18 July 2023 at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.
The youth-led inaugural National Young Creatives Convention will allow young creatives to discuss issues important to them, particularly the significance of arts in education, key issues affecting young people, and the role that arts organisations and schools can play a part in driving change.
37 Plays
The RSC has also announced the submission window for its nationwide playwriting project, 37 Plays, which will allow children, young people, and adults, including established and first-time writers to submit an original play.
The 37 Plays submission window opens on 1 January 2023 and closes on 31 January 2023, and the chosen 37 plays will be announced in April 2023 before being performed script-in-hand, across the UK and online in autumn 2023.
Words by Luke Horwitz
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