Thanks to my sister’s granddaughter, I was at The Citizens Theatre last week, to see her ‘perform with’ none other than The Royal Shakespeare Company. The granddaughter in question had been specially chosen along with some other lucky pupils from her school, to be one of  Titania’s fairies. This ground-breaking production of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream: A Play for the Nation’ sees the company of 18 professional actors work alongside amateur actors who play Shakespeare’s ‘Rude Mechanicals’ and local schoolchildren who play Titania’s fairy train. The show is currently touring the 12 regions of the UK, working with local amateur companies in their home towns before returning to Stratford for Midsummer, as part of the fantastic programme of summer events  marking the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.  Continue reading →