Radio Shakespeare

Five radio plays inspired by the ghost story in Hamlet.

Indulge your imagination with these five radio plays inspired by the famous encounter between Hamlet and the ghost of his murdered father in Shakespeare's tragedy. These radio dramas were written by Year 5 students from Riverley Primary School in Waltham Forest and performed by Year 12 students from Camden School for Girls.

The RSC and the Roundhouse collaborated on this Radio Shakespeare Project with the 9 and 10 year old playwrights from Waltham Forest in order to explore the process of writing a play for radio. They created five radio plays in groups of five, which were then rehearsed and performed by Year 12 students from Camden School for Girls, directed by RSC director Rebecca Gould.

On 20 October the writers came together with the actors at the Roundhouse to give feedback and direction for their plays. The entire project follows the same process that the RSC Literary Department themselves use when they are working with emerging playwrights. The plays were then performed and recorded, produced by BBC Radio producer Kevin Leach. 

Find out more about the Radio Shakespeare Project here.

Want to create your own radio plays? A teachers' pack for K32 & 3 is available to accompany the project. 

If you want a place to host your own radio dramas, sign up to Radiowaves. It's a safe, social learning environment that makes it easy for schools to deliver fun learning activities through audio podcasting, blogging and video. Check it out here.

The RSC will be performing two of their Young People's Theatre productions at the Roundhouse in January 2011. Follow the links for more information on their productions of Hamlet and Comedy of Errors.