The Discover Shakespeare

(previously the Shakespeare Project)

The UWALS Shakespeare Project was established in 2017 as an occasional gathering for anyone with an interest in getting to know and enjoy the works of Shakespeare, with a particular emphasis on active explorations of the language of his plays. We have organised a number of workshops on various Shakespearian themes, collaborated with Grassington Town Hall in running screenings of many of his more popular plays, and begun to explore the process of transforming words on a page to stories on a stage.

Of course, just as the plague did for Shakespeare’s own theatre, the pandemic curtailed our activities, but we resumed the Shakespeare Project with an exciting new development in collaboration with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2023.

If you would like any more information or to register your interest in the Shakespeare Project, please email us on uwalsociety@gmail.com or telephone 01756 770350

UWALS’ RSC-inspired Group springs into Shakespeare...

Country Matters , April 2025

The RSC-inspired UWALS Discover Shakespeare group goes from strength to strength with its current project Country Matters  which comes to fruition in the Spring of 2025.

Discover Shakespeare is dedicated to encouraging people of all levels of prior experience to encounter Shakespeare through active engagement with his language and text.  The groups' regular workshop sessions employ RSC-inspired rehearsal room techniques to enable participants to actively explore Shakespeare’s language, text, characters and themes.

Their current project is on similar lines (if even more ambitious!) to their previous very warmly received presentation, Fourteen Lines   in March 2024.This piece explored the world of Shakespeare’s Sonnets and included many highly effective readings and performances.

From small beginnings in 2017, the group has continued to expand, and the current project features no fewer than 26 participants from across the North of England. It includes a core of 'locals', both experienced thespians and others for whom this is all a relatively new departure!  Others – aged from 30 to 91- travel widely to be able to participate – from Leeds, Wetherby, Arnside, Lincolnshire and even Zurich.

They all plan to convene in Kettlewell in on Saturday April 5th for what they describe as ‘a highly original Shakespearian entertainment’ – Country Matters.  And this time everyone is invited!

Drawing on material from three of Shakespeare’s plays (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It and The Winter’s Tale), Country Matters   will lead the audience on a journey of discovery through the complex and many-faceted relationship between the worlds of city and country as reflected in the work of our national dramatist.

Group leader Ron Norman, who has developed and authored the piece, describes the piece as a ‘Hybrid Presentation-cum-Performance-cum-Documentary Infotainment….a kind of Illustrated multi-media living essay’. But don’t let that put you off!

The script has grown out of a couple of exploratory workshops in 2024 exploring the theme of ‘Town and Country’ in Shakespeare. Many of those who took part have been astonished by the contemporary flavour of the discussions of the rural economy and the relative merits of country and urban life in As You Like It and The Winter’s Tale, and by the extraordinary prescience of climate change in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Uniquely, the group will only be carrying out minimal prior rehearsal together before the one-and-only performance of Country Matters  in April. However, ‘remote’ preparation for the event is already well underway early in 2025. The whole group will assemble early on the morning of Saturday 5th and rehearse throughout the day before inviting their audience to join them at 5pm for the show, which will run for approximately an hour and a half.)

As Spring draws near, watch out for more details - including ticketing information - on this website, via email and in the local press.

UWALS is very grateful for the fulsome support we have received for this project from the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust.

Past Activities

A Shakespeare Presentation 

Saturday March 9th, at Kettlewell Village Hall 9.30 am a day’s preparation of a dramatic presentation which explores Shakespeare’s sonnets to be given at 4.30/5ish pm to an audience of family and friends.  Anybody wishing to be involved or part of the audience, please get in touch via email uwalsociety@gmail.com 

UWALS Discover Shakespeare Project

Fourteen Lines

The Upper Wharfedale Arts and Literature Society (UWALS) launched the scheme earlier this year with a day’s workshop led by a member of the Stratford-upon-Avon based RSC’s Voice and Text team (see below).

Now a grant from Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust (YDMT) is enabling the group to develop its work with an exciting project exploring Shakespeare’s sonnets and their links to his plays.

An active exploration of some of Shakespeare’s sonnets & their links to his plays. The Discover Shakespeare project is designed to engage people of all ages (16+) and levels of experience with Shakespeare’s text.  If your previous experiences of The Bard have made you Shakespeare phobic, this day will help you see him anew as well as being thoroughly enjoyable.

A full day’s practical workshop led by Ron Norman in Kettlewell Village Hall, Saturday October 14th 10.00 am to 4.30pm. £5   Teas/coffees etc provided, but please make own lunch arrangements         

Background to The Shakespeare Project
We were very pleased to re-launch our ‘Shakespeare Project’ with a full day’s workshop led by one of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Voice and Text experts, Gary Horner.

The day will offered participants the chance to experience some of the approaches to Shakespeare’s texts employed in the RSC rehearsal rooms.

Discover Shakespeare the RSC Way took place on March 11^th in Kettlewell Village Hall, from 10am – 4.30pm. The event was now fully booked.

But if you have missed out on the unique opportunity don’t worry - the workshop is only the first of a series of workshops and other activities over the coming months under the banner of ‘Discovering Shakespeare’.

The project’s re-launch follows Ron Norman’s participation in the RSC’s ‘Shakespeare Nation’ programme in 2022 which culminated in Ron and his colleagues from Bradford Alhambra rehearsing and performing with the RSC in their production of Henry VI:Rebellion in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford upon Avon.

Now Ron aims to draw on his experience to extend the reach of the ‘Shakespeare Nation’ to our own neck of the woods. The next stage in the project will be announced on this website and elsewhere in March following the workshop.

If you’d like to register your interest, or just find out more about the project, contact Ron at uwalsociety@gmail.com