Do you recognise these phrases? Green eyed jealousy. Slept not one wink. Too much of a good thing. Without rhyme or reason. Dead as a door nail !!. Refused to budge an inch. The game is up !! Blinking idiot!. Where do you think they come from?

William Shakespeare Celebrating 448 years. _kwE&list=RDYEIISZf_kwE#t=85 Play from 1 min 49

Why is Shakespeare so important to the literary and creative industries? "He was not of an age, but for all time!“ Ben Johnson actor friend. Summarize the range of human emotions in simple / eloquent verse is perhaps the greatest reason for his enduring popularity. If you cannot find words to express how you feel about love or music or growing older, Shakespeare can speak for you. No author in the Western world has penned more beloved passages. Every kind of story – comedy, tragedy, history, melodrama, adventure, love stories and fairy tales – and each of them so well that they have become immortal. Stock characters – invented a wide range of stock character but his truly great characters – particularly his tragic heroes – are unequalled in literature, dwarfing even the creations of the Greek tragedians. Shakespeare’s great characters have remained popular because of their complexity. Ability to turn a phrase - Many of the common expressions now thought to be clichés were Shakespeare's creations. Chances are you use Shakespeare's expressions all the time even though you may not know it is the Bard you are quoting. He invented 2000 new words and phrases.

At that time in history school was only for boys – what do you think of that? The very first theatre opened when William was a boy. William (Bill) started off as an actor but he also wrote plays on the side. Built the globe theatre.

Queen Elizabeth 1 loved his plays

The reduced Shakespeare company. om/watch?v=yqmfrqAV eK0&list=PLc_dD4fO2XT DRhPpAPSleSYalvBfyOA _S om/watch?v=yqmfrqAV eK0&list=PLc_dD4fO2XT DRhPpAPSleSYalvBfyOA _S Start from 8 mins in

Some of Shakespeare’s plays were Tragedies. His greatest tragedy is ………. Double, double, toil and trouble… Fire burn and cauldron bubble…. Eye of newts? Toe of frog? Wool of bat and tongue of dog?

But many of his plays were comedies. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream a character called Nick Bottom has his head turned into a donkey’s head by a fairy.

How are we celebrating this special year? In April we are putting on a small scale production of ‘A midsummer nights dream’. This will be in partnership with the RSC We could win the opportunity to perform in Stratford!!! We need your help! If you have any spare fabric, props, costume etc. please donate to the Drama department. Be apart of it? – we need more backstage volunteers to turn up to backstage club and help build the set,props etc.

Be a part of this amazing opportunity!.