The Shakespeare Birthday celebrations will return on 22nd April (Saturday), at Stratford, starting alongside High Street, Bridge Street and Henley Street, with the traditional unfurling of flags and handing over of the quill. Thereafter a procession will move through the centre of the town to reach Holy Trinity Church.
Stratford will have its usual array of activities and free events to mark the 453rd birthday this year of the Bard. The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust will offer juggling, hoola-hooping, rope walking and more in a free circus fun on Henley Street. RSC actors on board the chain ferry will be reading poetry. The New Place will feature theatrical performances.
Some 10,000 scrolls will be distributed on 22 April and the lucky one will get the ‘Golden Sonnet’ scroll which will earn the person an overnight stay at Welcombe Hotel, entry to Shakespeare’s Schoolroom and Guildhall and to Shakespeare family houses and also to ‘The Play’s The Thing’ exhibition.
The Havard House will open its doors for free to the public and Hall’s Croft will hosting the annual Knights and Nymphs Children’s Garden Party. At midday and 2:30pm, at Bancroft Gardens, acrobatic company Mimbe will perform ‘Wonderous Stage’
The first anniversary of Shakespeare’s Schoolroom and Guildhall will be celebrated, when on Saturday, hundreds of balloons will be given away. Each balloon has a chance to win 1 of 10 family tickets. On 21st April, Professor Michael Dobson will be in conversation with Michael Billington, drama critic, who will present The Shakespeare Birthday Lecture at the Shakespeare Institute. Free events and activities will be hosted The Studio Theatre and Other Place.
