Shake it Up! A Shakespeare Festival for Shoreditch
Event Information
About this Event
*UPDATE*
You can reserve your free spot for some of our seated events via the Shoreditch Town Hall Whats On page - . You can also sign in with us on the day. Some events have limited capacity so please do reserve to avoid disappointment!
Shoreditch Town Hall, St Leonard’s Church, Rich Mix and New Inn Broadway
The festival kicks off on Friday night with The Choicest Music of the Kingdom, an exclusive programme of Elizabethan and Jacobean choral works presented by internationally acclaimed choir The Sixteen. Tickets are available via The Sixteen website and Eventbrite.
On Saturday families can enjoy a free day of Elizabethan ruff making, art workshops, music, dancing and sword fighting!
Other activities across the weekend include talks by Before Shakespeare, walking tours by Look Up London, music by David William Hughes, performance by The School of Night and Elizabethan yoga!
Registration is not required - but welcomed!
Presented by The Theatre Courtyard Gallery
Follow us on Twitter @TheTheatre1576
FULL PROGRAMME:
Friday August 23
Exhibition: Dramatic Discoveries
9am until late
Rich Mix, Mezzanine Gallery
Explore the history of The Theatre and its archaeological remains alongside a display of artworks made by year 4 students from Columbia School.
Free, drop in
Shakespeare’s Shoreditch Walking Tour with Look Up London
11am - 12:30pm
A walking tour through Shoreditch, but not as you know it! Explore East London as William Shakespeare would have known it and handle objects with the archaeologists that excavated The Theatre.
Booking essential, tickets via Eventbrite
The Choicest Music of the Kingdom: A concert by Harry Christophers and The Sixteen
7:30pm - 9pm
St. Leonard’s Church, Shoreditch
An extraordinary evening of drama and song performed in the atmospheric surroundings of St. Leonard’s Church. Featuring an exclusive programme of Elizabethan and Jacobean choral works presented by internationally acclaimed choir The Sixteen and Harry Christophers CBE.
Booking essential, tickets via Eventbrite
Saturday 24 August
Exhibition: Dramatic Discoveries
9am until late
Rich Mix, Mezzanine Gallery
(See Friday 23rd)
Free, drop in
Shakespearean Yoga
11am - 12pm
Rich Mix, The Studio
The downward dog will have it’s day – and this is it! Join us for a yoga class (suitable for beginners) performed to live musical accompaniment and with special scents created by AVM curiosities.
Booking essential, tickets via Eventbrite
MOLA Time Tent at The Theatre
11am - 5pm
Outside the site of The Theatre, New Inn Broadway
Archaeologists from MOLA, the archaeological organisation who excavated The Theatre, will bring you an archaeological feast for the eyes presenting objects uncovered in London’s original theatre districts and a chance to handle real artefacts!
Free, drop in
Shakespeare’s Shoreditch Walking Tour with Look Up London
11am - 12:30pm
(See Friday 23rd)
Booking essential, tickets via Eventbrite
Room of Ruffs
11am - 5pm
Shoreditch Town Hall, The Ditch
Drop into an Elizabethan ruff factory; try them on and make one for yourself!
Free, drop in
Elizabethan Card Games
11am - 5pm
Shoreditch Town Hall, The Ditch
Have a go at the games that Shakespeare and his cronies would have enjoyed at the tavern.
Free, drop in
Before Shakespeare: Rethinking London’s Earliest Playhouses
11:30am - 1pm
Shoreditch Town Hall, The Ditch
Join historical theatre investigators Andy Kesson, Lucy Munro and Callan Davies as they present bite-sized lectures on the beginnings of London’s commercial theatres. Talks will feature Elizabethan London’s cosmopolitan crowds, female playhouse owners, and bowling, brawls and broomsticks….
Free, drop in
Family Workshops: Dramatic Discoveries
11:00am - 1:00pm and 2pm - 4pm
Rich Mix, The Stage
Families are invited to join Art Hoppers to make their own historical artefacts. Make your own design for a Medieval tile to take home!
[Family friendly]
Free, advance booking recommended - via Rich Mix website
Pop-up Shakespeare
12:30pm – at the MOLA tent, New Inn Broadway
2pm & 4:30pm – in Shoreditch Town Hall, The Ditch
Have you seen Shakespeare as it was originally acted? Actors from Shake-scene Shakespeare will perform pop-up scenes throughout the day; watch the actors step into the unknown and gamble with every moment of the scene!
Free, drop in
From Marchpane to Mutton: A Sniff of Shakespeare’s Time
1pm - 1.30pm
Shoreditch Town Hall, The Ditch
Join Tasha Marks, award-winning food historian and artist, for a visual and aromatic lecture exploring the food that Shakespeare would have eaten.
Free, drop in
Shakespeare: A Ruff History
1:30pm - 2pm
Shoreditch Town Hall, The Ditch
Looking back through four centuries of Shakespeare in performance and popular culture, Ella Hawkins explores how the ruff came to be the ultimate symbol for the playwright and his works.
Free, drop in
BURBAGE V BRAYNE by The Dolphin’s Back
2pm - 3pm
Shoreditch Town Hall, The Ditch
Using verbatim testimony drawn from the legal records and contemporary accounts, the troubled and sometimes violent history of the ownership of The Theatre is brought to life by actors from The Dolphin’s Back
Free, drop in
Shoreditch Church bells rung by the Society of Royal Cumberland Youths
3pm
Anywhere within earshot of Shoreditch Church!
Listen out for a full peal of these historic church bells, rung by the Royal Cumberland Youth Society, a society that has been ringing church bells since 1747!
Free, drop in
Sword Fighting demonstration
3.15pm - 4.15pm
Shoreditch Town Hall, The Ditch
Watch a spine-tingling demonstration of Elizabethan stage fighting techniques!
Free, drop in
“Elizabethan”
5pm - 6pm
Shoreditch Town Hall, The Ditch
Straight from the Edinburgh Fringe - David William Hughes brings his smash hit one man show to Shoreditch! Tobias Bacon - drinker, smoker, tights-wearer, and lover, recounts his life story in this historical musical comedy based on 400-year-old songs.
Free, drop in
Can You Cut a Caper? Elizabethan dance workshop with Sian Williams
6.30pm - 7.30pm
Shoreditch Town Hall, The Ditch
A fun, free Elizabethan dance workshop for all abilities. Led by choreographer Sian Williams, who has been directing dance at Shakespeare’s Globe for the last 19 years.
Free, drop in
The School of Night: creating a new Shakespearean masterpiece on the fly
8pm - 9pm
Shoreditch Town Hall, The Ditch
Meetings of The School of Night are unlike any other theatrical event you are likely to experience. Every show is different - everything is created on the spur of the moment according to ideas and suggestions proffered by the audience.
Free, drop in
Drinks - including specialty cocktails! - being served all day in Shoreditch Town Hall.
