Skegness is one of five towns and cities entering a new partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) aimed at raising the aspirations of young people and having a positive impact on their learning, employment opportunities and wellbeing.
In a major expansion of the RSC’s Associate Schools Programme, Skegness will join the Company’s 26 existing country-wide partnerships all in areas of structural disadvantage. The areas local leisure and culture trust, Magna Vitae and schools from the Greenwood Academies Trust will work with the RSC in an expansion of activity made possible by an Arts Council England touring grant, Paul Hamlyn Foundation endowment, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation award, and impact investment provided through Arts & Culture Finance within Nesta. Other partners announced today include Coventry: The Belgrade Theatre; Peterborough: Ormiston Bushfield Academy; Corby: The Core at Corby Cube; Hartlepool: St. Cuthbert’s Catholic Primary School. Further partners will join the programme in 2024/25.
Growing evidence shows that taking part in arts and cultural activities contributes to better mental health and well-being. Skegness has one of the lowest national health outcomes and nearly half the town’s working age population are economically inactive due to poor health. The RSC partnership feeds into local plans to use arts and culture as a tool for regeneration and boosting health, well-being and opportunities for young people.
Talking about the new partnership, James Brindle, Executive Director of Magna Vitae said: “We’re so excited to announce our partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company which will offer new perspectives on what young people here could only dream to achieve. It will be seismic social and educational change with the skills associated with the creative industries aligned to this coast for the first time.
“It opens opportunities for young people in this area that are untold and hugely exciting, and it’s the first of many innovative developments in our community planned through the Culture House in Skegness.”
Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer said: “I am delighted that the Royal Shakespeare Company is creating and supporting opportunities for young people to get involved in theatre. We know that access to the arts help to expand their horizons and allow them to develop vital life skills.
“Our recent Creative Industries sector vision sets out how we can maximise the potential of the sector and develop the wealth of talent up and down the country. Programmes such as this from the Royal Shakespeare Company play a vital role in ensuring young people can unlock these opportunities, no matter where they live.”
The RSC’s unique and ground-breaking partnerships programme uses a theatre-based approach to learning to help children and young people unlock their full potential. Schools who join the Associate Schools Programme (ASP) learn how to use the same techniques that actors use in rehearsals to explore Shakespeare’s plays. They form local clusters who work with the RSC and their regional theatre to devise a bespoke programme that meets the needs of their young people.
Jacqui O’Hanlon, the RSC’s Director of Learning and National Partnerships said:
“We work in partnership with schools and communities from Truro to Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Research shows us that young people who experience an arts rich education tend to do better in school, get a better job and live healthier and more fulfilling lives.
“We know that talent and potential are everywhere, but opportunity isn’t. We are driven by the belief that all young people should have access to an arts-rich education as we know this can have a major impact on their life chances. We are thrilled that we can now work with more partners across the country to create opportunities for children that haven’t existed before.”
A growing body of research about the RSC’s work over ten years shows that as well as developing reading, writing and oracy skills, these approaches to teaching accelerate language acquisition, raise aspiration, and foster key life and work skills such as problem-solving, creativity and critical thinking. Details of existing research can be found HERE. The RSC has multiple case studies evidencing the impact of this working model including in Blackpool where the Company has been in partnership with Our Lady of the Assumption school, and The Grand Theatre since 2013.
In the schools’ most recent Ofsted report it acknowledged the positive benefits of the partnership saying it had ‘helped to develop pupils’ self-confidence and enrich their language skills’, with the school seeing ‘the huge impact that studying Shakespeare’s plays using theatre techniques had on their children’. Participation in live productions of Shakespeare’s plays raised the self-esteem of many children and equipped them with analytical skills. The combination of Shakespeare and live theatre increased the children’s cultural capital which has positively impacted on their aspirations for the future.
As well as bringing the RSC to Skegness, the town has plans to transform the iconic Embassy Theatre into the UK’s first ‘culture house’. Hailing from Denmark – the country often dubbed the happiest in the world – the ‘culture house’ concept is about creating inclusive community spaces that offer a variety of ways for people of all ages to experience arts and cultural activities, socialise, network and learn.
Alongside in-depth work with local schools, young people and adults, the RSC will tour to partner areas, including a new production of Romeo and Juliet in April 2024. The production will be developed with young people through research and development workshops in autumn 2023.