A leading education and heritage charity has announced a new project to ensure that schoolchildren have access to the works and words of Shakespeare through a new abridged edition of his plays, making it easier for children to explore and perform without changing Shakespeare’s dramatic language. With an initial 10,000 copies to be donated to schools and libraries across the UK.
The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (SBT), an independent charity committed to sharing Shakespeare’s enduring legacy, has announced the publication of a new abridged version of Shakespeare’s complete works targeted at a younger audience.
SBT, which holds three original copies of the 1623 First Folio as part of its world-class collection, hopes that the new publication will help to ensure that children’s first encounter with Shakespeare is a positive, and importantly, accessible experience.
“With 2023 being the 400th anniversary of the publication of the First Folio, a book that first brought Shakespeare’s plays together in one volume and set the highest bar for creativity, performance, and collaboration, we could think of no better way of celebrating than to re-introduce the works and words of Shakespeare to young people, empowering them to read or perform them as they choose.”
Said Andy Reeves, head of learning development at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
Produced in partnership with Walker Books, a leading publisher of children’s books, Shakespeare's Plays: A First Folio for Children is targeted at children aged 7-14, and will include all 36 plays that were published in the First Folio, in the same order.
Most importantly, this new edition uses all of Shakespeare’s language and has been abridged allowing each play to be easily performed by a minimum of 8 people and in under 20 minutes.
“This book isn’t about re-writing or reducing the power of Shakespeare’s words and works. Instead, we want the original language, themes and stories to be celebrated. By capturing the essence of each play, through characters and dialogue, and maintaining as many themes as possible, I hope to help children access and explore famous speeches, concepts, and enjoy Shakespeare’s incredible stagecraft.”
Commented Senior Lecturer in Shakespeare Studies at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Dr. Anjna Chouhan, who has edited all of the plays for the children’s folio project.
“Where else but in Shakespeare can you enjoy such weird and wonderful words like ‘sluggardise’, and ‘rampallion’ one moment, lead armies into battle with Henry V the next, turn a page to confront mortality with Hamlet, and conclude by enjoying a good practical joke with Sir Toby Belch?”
Shakespeare’s Plays: A First Folio for Children will be lavishly illustrated by Emily Sutton, whose previous titles with Walker include A First Book of the Sea, The Christmas Eve Tree and William Sieghart’s poetry anthology Everyone Sang. Described by The Times as “one of our greatest children’s illustrators”, Emily has meticulously researched each play using the SBT’s extensive collection, which includes weapons, domestic objects, textiles and early printed books as inspiration.
“Without the First Folio, we would not have the works of Shakespeare as we know them. This flagship project is a fantastic opportunity to celebrate one of the greatest books ever published and bring the works of our most important writer to a younger generation, in an accessible form. We are enormously proud to continue our work alongside the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and inspire new audiences for the future.”
Said Denise Johnstone-Burt, Publishing Director at Walker Books, the publisher of A First Folio for Children.
Shakespeare for everyone
Much like Shakespeare’s fellow actors, John Heminges and Henry Condell, who were responsible for the original publication of the First Folio, staff at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust are hopeful that their new edition will pay homage to the lasting legacy of this much-celebrated and ambitious volume.
The book, entitled Shakespeare's Plays: A First Folio for Children, will be officially launched in the autumn of 2023, on the anniversary of the publication of the First Folio. With the first print run of 10,000 copies distributed to 6,000 schools and 3,000 libraries across the UK, starting with the network of ‘Shakespeare Hub’ schools the Trust has developed over the past decade as well as institutions that sign up online to receive a copy of the children’s folio.
Accompanying the physical book, the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust is also developing a series of free digital resources for teachers to maximise the support for, and impact of, the children’s folio.
“Our new children’s folio will help continue to make Shakespeare’s work and language accessible and engaging for future audiences, very much as the First Folio achieved over 400 years ago. We are initially focusing on distributing 10,000 copies of the book in communities that may have traditionally felt that Shakespeare isn’t for them. However, we see this as very much the start of our story, we would like to get a copy of the children’s folio into every primary school and public library in the UK.”
Continued Andy, who leads the learning team at the Stratford-based charity.
To support its ambitious target of depositing a copy of the children’s folio in every primary school and library in the UK, the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust has plans to launch a fundraising programme. With initial supporters from as far afield as the United States already coming forward with donations, it is hoped that both individual donors and philanthropic support from organisations will follow as the project progresses.
Shakespeare's Plays: A First Folio for Children published by Walker Books will be published in spring 2024 and available for pre-order later in 2023.
More information on the project, including details on how schools can register and how to support the project, can be found at www.shakespeare.org.uk/childrens-folio.