RSC Announce Shakespeare Birthday Celebrations

As part of Stratford-upon-Avon's four day Shakespeare Birthday Celebrations between Thursday 23 - Sunday 26 April, the Royal Shakespeare Company will be offering a range of diverse activities.

The RSC has teamed up with the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (SBT) to commission artists to develop two events that celebrate and reinterpret Shakespeare's genius. Two significant moments have inspired the artists with whom the RSC and SBT are working. Sonnet Sleuth, created by New York poet and performance artist, Nicole Blackman, is a literary scavenger hunt celebrating the 400th anniversary of the publication of The Sonnets.

And the launch of the new Shakespeare portrait exhibition at the Birthplace itself has led the RSC and the SBT to commission internationally acclaimed artist George Chakravarthi to create a video installation, Ode to a Dark Star - a contemporary response to the newly identified portrait, inspired by Shakespeare's sonnets.

Both Sonnet Sleuth and Ode to a Dark Star will run beyond the Birthday Celebrations period.

On Sunday 26 April at 2pm the RSC is holding Transforming Our Theatres - The Next Stage, an update on the work taking place to transform its main playhouse, the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, and on Saturday 25 April Sonnets on the Ferry will give visitors to Stratford the chance to be entertained with Shakespearean sonnets as they cross the River Avon.

The annual procession that takes place through the streets of Stratford on Saturday 25 April will involve a wide range of local organisations, including theatre groups and dancers. They will have the opportunity to work with Struan Leslie, the newly appointed RSC Head of Movement, who will help to choreograph elements of the procession. The RSC's Education department will be working with local children who will be part of the procession and will take part in street performances on the same day.

Shakespeare's Birthday also sees the release of five new printed editions in the RSC Shakespeare Series, The Winter's Tale, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, Macbeth and The Sonnets and Other Poems.