“The plays’ the thing”, so said Hamlet and hundreds of 11-18 year olds proudly performing in their abridged play in this year’s MANCEP Shakespeare Festival.

Established in November 2012, the MANCEP Shakespeare Festival is a celebration of youth performance and of the very special partnership of MANCEP. As a community, we believe that such a collaborative venture will strengthen the relationships of Manchester schools, students and staff.

In this, its seventh year, eight participating institutions worked together to present some of Shakespeare’s finest plays: St Matthew’s RC High School and engineering college (Taming of the Shrew), St. Peter’s RC High School (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), St Paul’s (Macbeth), Our Lady’s RC High School (Hamlet), The Barlow (The Tempest), Loreto High School (Romeo and Juliet), Xaverian College (Titus Andronicus) and Loreto Sixth Form (As You Like It). This year we had the string ensemble, wind ensemble and jazz band perform. Shakespeare inspirde music in the interval.

Danny Price, Coordinator said “it is so special to have young people performing Shakespeare with confidence and I want to thank the 14 staff from all 8 institutions who collaborated and allowed our young people to challenge themselves to tackle Shakespeare and be part of a very special community”.

Plans are already underway for Festival 2019. Watch this space!