For a number of years Better Bankside and its predecessor the Bankside Business Partnership have supported the Playhouse's annual 'Shakespeare for Schools' production - the most conspicuous part of Tom Wilson's brilliant legacy as Education
Director. However in 2007 the relationship deepened, with the Playhouse inviting applicants for the 'Better Bankside Shakespeare Award', with the winner appointed to produce and direct 'Shakespeare for Schools'. Said the Playhouse: 'We wanted to raise the status of the production and to attract the very best applicants.'
In 2007, there were more than 100 applications for the Award, with
Tangram Theatre eventually chosen to stage
Richard III. The resulting production featured live music and - most memorably - puppetry. In the words of the Playhouse: 'Murder may be evoked by the destruction of a puppet, yet a distance is set so an audience may be detached as well. Young audiences can then feel the full weight of murder and revenge without being dragged through gratuitous blood letting.'
The production was a massive success. 30 schools booked, bringing a total of 2,026 young people from Lambeth and Southwark (mainly primary, but also secondary) to see the play for free. As is customary, the production was backed up with a learning pack, drawing attention to the friction between historical fact and literary invention in the play, and also the parallels between the Wars of the Roses and the modern political world.
Richard III was the most ambitious and expensive production for Shakespeare for Schools, needing the addition of adult ticket-payers to hit its financial targets. The production was strong enough to bridge the two audiences, and thereby to break even.
In the future the Playhouse has pledged itself to increasing its efforts to attract low-engaging schools via a more targeted marketing strategy, including visiting schools to talk to staff and students. It particularly hopes to bring in more secondary age students. Consultation with teachers about the choice of text is already underway.
Southwark Playhouse is one of Better Bankside's seven 'Community Partners'. These are local organisations running projects benefiting 4-11 year-olds and their families, or 11-19 year-olds, or both. Southwark Playhouse Theatre Company was founded in 1993 by Juliet Alderdice, Tom Wilson & Mehmet Ergen. They identified the need for a high quality accessible theatre which would also act as a major resource for the community. They leased a disused workshop in a then comparatively neglected part of Southwark and turned it into a flexible theatre space. In 2007 Southwark Playhouse moved to their current premises - in a refurbished rail arch off Tooley Street. In 2010 they will move again to purpose-built premises in the basement and ground floor of a huge new residential development on the site of the former London Park Hotel at the Elephant & Castle.