The play’s the thing

Warwick Business School (WBS) are leading a new partnership between the University and the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) to get schoolchildren engaging with Shakespeare.

The partnership will combine the RSC’s creative approach with the world-leading scholarship and research practices of Warwick University.

The joint venture, ‘Teaching Shakespeare’, in collaboration with the Institute of Education and Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies, includes online resources for teachers and the opportunity for 400 teachers to pursue a Postgraduate Award in the Teaching of Shakespeare, accredited by the University of Warwick.

The partnership will provide up to 1,000 teachers a year from across the globe with access to RSC resources, drawing on the experience of long-distance learning of WBS.

Teachers will be able to access films and materials, including a film of Warwick Professor Jonothon Neelands and Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro introducing students to Shakespeare’s _Romeo and Juliet_.

Teaching Shakespeare also provides exclusive podcasts and interviews with the likes of actor John Lithgow and Jonathan Bate, previously a Professor at Warwick.

Dean of WBS Professor Mark Taylor commented: “Warwick Business School’s business acumen and experience at delivering high quality online materials and distance learning to tens of thousands of people worldwide will be used to open the RSC’s decades of content and practical experience of the performance of Shakespeare to support the teaching of Shakespeare in schools.”