Date/Time: 1 October 2024 -4:30 pm - 6:00 pm

Calling all A Level Teachers! Join leading experts from the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and the Royal Shakespeare Company for a free online CPD taster session on teaching Shakespeare at Key Stage 5. The session will be fun, informative and interactive – introducing teachers to tried and tested methods for engaging students and bringing Shakespeare to life in the classroom.

The event will be in two parts:

1. Teaching Hamlet at A-Level

Dr Darren Freebury-Jones, Lecturer in Shakespeare Studies at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (SBT), will be offering insights into the A-level sessions he delivers to visiting groups at SBT. Using an interactive and illustrated set text session on Hamlet as an example, Darren will discuss ways of approaching Shakespeare’s structure, form, and language; social, cultural, and theatrical contexts; stagecraft; themes; alternative interpretations; influences/sources; performance history; and more. He’ll suggest approaches that might benefit teachers in the classroom, whether they are teaching Hamlet or another Shakespeare text, and explores ways of empowering students to come up with their own informed, personal and creative responses.

You can find out more about SBT’s work with A Level teachers and students here.

2. RSC rehearsal room approachess at Key Stage 5

The Royal Shakespeare Company’s teaching and learning practice is informed by the methods employed to investigate Shakespeare’s texts by actors and directors in our rehearsal rooms. As the only theatre company with IRO (Independent Research Organisation) status, we regularly conduct research into the impact of our work on the academic, social and emotional development of young people. Our most recent project, Time to Act, has revealed several key findings relating to writing outcomes and development for the pupils of teachers who undertake professional development with the RSC. What do these findings mean for how Shakespeare features in Key Stage 5 classrooms? In an interactive taster of our rehearsal room approaches led by Conrad Cohen, Teachers Programme Manager at the RSC, we will explore a sample of these activities focusing on Twelfth Night, a play featured across GCSE and A-level curricula.

You can find out more about the RSC’s work with schools here.

This event is free to attend, but you will need to register interest here: https://www.britishshakespeare.ws/free-online-teacher-cpd/

Biographies

Dr Darren Freebury-Jones is Lecturer in Shakespeare Studies (Domestic and International) at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. His role involves building and developing relationships with schools, universities, and organisations in key international target areas, principally the USA and Europe; conducting in-person and online international teaching, conference presentations, and development meetings; and working on the Trust’s online educational resources, including the project management of Self-led Macbeth. He teaches across age groups and curricula, from high school students to college, university, and leisure learners. He is author of the monographs: Reading Robert Greene: Recovering Shakespeare’s Rival (Routledge), Shakespeare’s Tutor: The Influence of Thomas Kyd (Manchester University Press), and Shakespeare’s Borrowed Feathers (Manchester University Press). He is Associate Editor for the first critical edition of The Collected Works of Thomas Kyd since 1901 (Boydell and Brewer). He has also investigated the boundaries of John Marston’s dramatic corpus as part of the Oxford Marston project and is General Editor for The Collected Plays of Robert Greene (Edinburgh University Press). His findings on the works of Shakespeare and his contemporaries have been discussed in national newspapers such as The Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Observer, and The Independent as well as BBC Radio. His debut poetry collection, Rambling (Broken Sleep Books), was published in 2024. In 2023 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in recognition of his contributions to historical scholarship.

Conrad Cohen (he/him) is a Scottish and Jewish actor, director, and teacher who has worked in schools and theatres across the UK and in the USA. He is Teachers Programme Manager at the Royal Shakespeare Company where he manages their courses for teachers and educators on the pedagogy of teaching Shakespeare. He is a visiting lecturer and tutor in acting, Shakespeare, Meisner technique, Jewish theatre and performance practice, and other performing arts and actor training specialisms. After completing a BSc (Hons) in Mathematics, Conrad trained as an actor at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York and has recently completed an MFA in Actor Training and Coaching at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, for which he achieved a distinction. He is a qualified teacher with a PGCE from the University of Northampton and has experience leading departments in secondary education. His latest publication is a chapter in the volume Stanislavsky and Race which focuses on the Jewish influences of Stanislavsky-based actor training in 20th century America, and was published in 2023 by Routledge. www.conradcohen.com