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The Prince meets the Royal Shakespeare Company's Youth Ensemble
7th September 2008
The Prince of Wales met a group of budding young actors in Stratford-Upon-Avon as the Royal Shakespeare Company's first Youth Ensemble took to the stage.
The group, which consists of 21 members aged between 13 and 18, performed extracts from their version of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
The Prince, who is president of the RSC, laughed along as the teenagers acted out one of Shakespeare's most famous romantic comedies at The Courtyard Theatre, before chatting to a few of the star performers.
The RSC's Youth Ensemble members were specially chosen from 252 schools across the country, which took part in the company's Learning and Performance Network earlier this year.
The lucky youngsters were given the chance to attend a two-week workshop at the RSC last month, where they worked with professional actors and directors.
Aileen Gonsalves, director of the Youth Ensemble, said the students were selected because of their passion for Shakespeare as well as their acting ability.
"It's been extremely successful," she said. "What has been amazing about it is that the children are here from all over the country and they are the ones who were really passionate about Shakespeare. They were all extremely supportive of each other and had so many ideas."
The youngsters will now act as Shakespeare ambassadors in their schools, and try to encourage more young people to get interested in the playwright.
Budding actress Aimee Shields, 17, from County Durham, said: "The two weeks were quite honestly the best two weeks of my life.
"It's been such an experience because this is the industry we want to work in eventually. As an ambassador, what I want to say to the rest of the school is that Shakespeare is great, give him a chance."