OUR OFFER
Expertise
<1 hour Performances
Experience
Associate Artist/Director visit to include a choice of storytelling, voice and text workshops, creating scenes/play in a day, talk and Q&A on Making Shakespeare in 21st Century
Experience
<1 hour Performances
Experience
Associate Director and Artist visit with choice of performance of key scenes, workshopping; communication, physicality, voice, interactive workshops based around Making, Playing and Speaking Shakespeare
<1 hour Performances
<1 hour Performances
<1 hour Performances
Macbeth (Abridged), Much Ado About Nothing (Abridged) and Romeo & Juliet (Abridged) performances, Q&A and workshops - bookable now!
The South Wolds Academy and Sixth Form , Notts
“I am almost lost for words... almost. Thank you so much to you and your colleagues for the exceptional production of Macbeth for our Year 11s this morning. The impact on our students has left us feeling a little bit overwhelmed: the quality of the performance in terms of the overall production and individual performances brought the play alive for our students in a way we have not been able to. For all the year group to enjoy quality live theatre is a great opportunity in itself, but the timeliness and relevance of Macbeth, as one of their examination texts, is beyond valuable. Reading many of the comments from students after the performance has been joyful - you've made the play so much more.
I am extremely grateful for what you have all given to our students and staff today and look forward to having you back again in the future.
Kindest regards,
Sarah Shaw
English Performance Leader
I just wanted to extend my thanks for such a wonderful experience today. The year 11 students were absolutely buzzing - the general consensus was that the play made a lot more sense once they had seen it - and who knew it was actually going to be funny!
The production was fabulous - you could have heard a pin drop - and the question and answer session at the end invaluable for our higher level learners.
Most importantly, you made the play make sense, you made the students think about the characters, especially the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, and you made it live for them.
Thank you. I don't think I've ever seen a year group so engaged by a Shakespeare production.
Lisa Wightman
Engagement, Stretch and Challenge
I just wanted to thank you again for the absolutely fantastic performance of Macbeth you put on this morning for the Year 11 students at The South Wolds Academy and Sixth Form. It was so, so engaging and brilliantly realised. I've taught the play for years and watched many different versions of it and thought your performances were fantastic. It was such a fabulous experience for our students and I'm so grateful that they got to see the play properly brought to life like that. Your Q&A was also great - particularly where you talked about the staging arises from the language in Shakespeare. It's given me so much to think about (having Macbeth kill the doctor was a lovely interpretation) and I'm sure it will have helped the students immeasurably as well. I really hope we can have you back again soon!
Kymberley Arnold
SARAH MARSHALL (ENGLISH TEACHER & HEAD OF KS5 RTD.)
I have known and worked with Michelle for five years, both as a teaching colleague and as a member of the Nottingham Shakespeare Company.
As a teacher, Michelle is outstanding in her empathic and effective manner of dealing with pupils and students of all abilities. She is encouraging and always insists on their best performance in every context. I observed her remarkable work with year 7 students who not only performed scenes from ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ for other pupils to watch but were also able to coach visiting year 6 pupils to take on the roles that they had demonstrated. They had a full understanding not only of the language they had learnt but also of the roles they played and the nature of the interaction of the characters that they were able to help the year 6 students understand.
Michelle is devoted to Shakespearean drama and strongly feels that it is her mission in life to make it accessible to anyone. Because of this, she has founded the Nottingham Shakespeare Company. The energy and organisational ability required to gather a group of actors, find rehearsal space, direct them and their technical support, and find suitable performance venues on Nottingham’s streets and open spaces is evidence enough of her determination. The performances gathered significant audience numbers and enough funds from voluntary contribution to be able to pay the actors. Michelle herself has also played demanding roles in these productions.
Michelle is now concerned with Nottingham Shakespeare Outreach. To develop activities and extension work to take into schools to assist students to overcome the barriers to understanding Shakespeare presented by the need to study text on the page in the classroom.
Her charismatic directorial skills will help her to establish a positive and responsive atmosphere and allow students to discover their own understanding of the texts they are studying. This can only be of benefit to all forms of English study.
Sarah Marshall – Retired English teacher.
Contact details: SAJMarshall1@outlook.com
Will Horton (Head of English) Farnborough Academy, Notts
"The cast were absolutely fantastic - our students really benefited from the production and the shows helped them bridge the gap between page and performance! The blood-curdling screams were a particular favourite of mine!"
Reece George Soar (Actor)
I worked with the Nottingham Shakespeare Company when I had the amazing opportunity to be cast in the NSC 2022 summer season Comedy Of Errors playing the Merchant Winston.
The benefits I have had when working for the company were that I had the opportunity to perform in a professional Shakespeare performance (open air/indoor venue.) Since working in this professional environment I have now taken these skills to an accredited drama school in London using the knowledge to perform at my best and with the confidence to back it up.
Michelle herself was exceptionally helpful when I first had a professional paid acting job helping with my french accent (when my confidence for that kind of thing was nowhere) in a murder mystery for fancy entertainment and as a result I have consistently been booked for jobs with that company.
My auditioning experience was very positive and welcoming. I know what a good audition experience is like so take my word for it; I had to audition for multiple drama schools. Michelle knows how to get the best out of you in an audition and makes you relaxed as possible throughout.
I think what other people will get out of working for the Nottingham Shakespeare Company and Michelle is a sense of community. I'm in London and I miss everyone I worked with during the Comedy Of Errors ever so much; it was the best job I've had of late and were I to be able to be in another production; I wouldn't hesitate.
Playing Shakespeare Workshops: My Experience
Our Banquo, James Kaye, on how he came to join the Company
"My first encounter with Nottingham Shakespeare Company was at a Macbeth workshop in October 2021. I hadn't acted in at least 5 years but the laid back and encouraging atmosphere on the day meant I had no trouble opening myself up to Shakespeare's words in front of a group.
Artistic Director, Michelle-Louise Wright, gave one-on-one feedback after performing my soliloquy and that gave me the knowledge to start improving my acting and the confidence to audition for the company's summer production.
Auditions can be intimidating, particularly to someone like me who hadn't performed in years. However, the workshop allowed me to play with the text and prepared me for future auditions.
Additionally, Michelle's analysis of the literary techniques in the soliloquies provoked me to consider things I hadn't before, such as allusions: 'If it were done when tis done, then 'twere well it was done quickly' is very similar to Jesus telling Judas 'That thou doest, do quickly'. This close reading of the text really helped and pushed my marks up when I studied Macbeth at Univeristy - making the workshop ideal for those studying Macbeth at all levels of education! "