WATCH: UK Stars Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen Launch New Shakespeare School Curriculum

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The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) Shakespeare Curriculum transforms 10 of the playwright's most studied plays into a 24-part digital learning platform.

Transcript

00:00And I was very lucky, because when I was about 15, I was taken to see a production of Hamlet,

00:07and I fell in love with Shakespeare, just like that. You know, you're so ripe for Shakespeare

00:14when you're 13, 14, 15, 16 years old. It's the perfect age to be exposed to Shakespeare.

00:21But as has been pointed out, the teaching of Shakespeare in schools has been, you know,

00:27I think teachers have done their very, very best, really struggled, tried to make it alive and relevant.

00:35But it's very, very difficult when you're dealing with that kind of language.

00:40You guys understand the transformative nature of Shakespeare, and to me, and Ian, I'm sure,

00:47it's so unbelievably exciting to see that there is a new initiative to bring Shakespeare

00:52so thrillingly, sexually, violently, and all the good stuff to life. So, thank you. Thank you, everybody.

01:02Because I just know, after 60 or 70 years of acting Shakespeare, that it's bloody difficult,

01:07and I've still not worked out how to do it. So, how could a child of 13 or 14 begin to appreciate

01:14the wonderful difficulties of Shakespeare's writing?

01:19All my Shakespeare, discovery of Shakespeare was not in the classroom, but was by doing the plays,

01:25acting in them, thinking about them, talking about them with other enthusiasts.

01:29And that seems to me the spirit behind the curriculum.

01:32Shakespeare's been a part of my life for as long as I can remember, and I feel very lucky.

01:37This Shakespeare curriculum that we're talking about today is a new way of teaching Shakespeare.

01:45It's the law of the land that students have to learn about Shakespeare,

01:50and this is a very good way to support teachers who are trying to engage kids in the delights of Shakespeare's stories and language.

01:59We hope that the Shakespeare curriculum will create a revolution in the way that teachers teach the plays and students learn about them.

02:09Shakespeare's texts are extraordinary and complex, and we can't read them really like they're a book.

02:18We have to bring them to life through performance, and that can be very, very challenging for a teacher in a classroom.

02:24And so what the platform is designed to do is to bring performance and all of the pedagogy,

02:31the teaching approaches that stems from performance, directly into classrooms.

02:36We have the characters, we have the plot, we have all the plays.

02:40It's so clearly displayed, and I find it really useful and easy to get around, and stuff like that.

02:48And I think I've seen a different side to Shakespeare from what I did see before.

02:51Well, previously I really disliked Shakespeare, but after actually understanding the whole context behind it

03:01and actually getting a full grasp of the play itself, I've actually come to enjoy it a lot.

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