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Shakespeare-inspired plays by Northampton actors get premiere

Tom Percival/BBC Three actors, one holding a script, are rehearsing with black curtains and spotlights in the backgroundTom Percival/BBC
Final rehearsals are underway for this weekend's performances

Plays written by young theatre students to mark a Shakespeare anniversary are being performed this week.

Five works by members of the Northampton-based Silhouette Youth Theatre will be included in a new book to mark the 400th anniversary of the great bard's first folio.

There are 37 plays in the new collection, the same number included in the original folio.

The five Northampton plays will be performed in a shopping centre.

The William Shakespeare folio brought all 37 plays known to have been written by him together in one volume, which was entered into the Stationers' Register on 8 November, 1623.

The Royal Shakespeare Company marked the anniversary by inviting writers to submit plays for inclusion in a new folio.

Tom Percival/BBC Young woman with long hair in pigtails and glasses, in a rehearsal studioTom Percival/BBC
Jade Wisby, who will be working behind the scenes, said she is incredibly proud of the young authors

There were more than 2,000 entries and 37 were selected, including five from the Silhouette Youth Theatre, which is based at the Weston Favell Shopping Centre in Northampton.

They will be performed at the shopping centre on 10 and 11 November.

Actors from the theatre company have been joined by professionals to rehearse the plays.

Dan McGarry is looking forward to his roles in "Bruno", an adventure based on gaming penned by ten-year-old Dylan.

"As children develop, they get told to 'be quiet' and to stop putting their hands up, and that's a terrible thing because I think the innocence of youth is lost," Mr McGarry said.

"One of the reasons I work in theatre is because I don't want to grow up. I'm 43 years old and I'm still pretending to be an alien."

Jade Wisby will be helping out "behind the scenes" during the performances. She said: "It's so amazing for the kids who have written this.

"I still work with them at Silhouette during the week and seeing [the plays] come to life, I'm so incredibly proud of them."

Tom Percival/BBC Man with grey hair and beard wearing glasses in a rehearsal studioTom Percival/BBC
Leigh Wolmarans from Silhouette Youth Theatre, thinks Shakespeare would have loved the new plays

The performances will be taking place in a rather unusual venue - a busy shopping centre- but Leigh Wolmarans, chief executive of the theatre company, feels Shakespeare himself would have approved.

"I know that, if he was sitting in that audience, he would be beside himself - done by actors, with minimal set, with minimal costumes, passionately, he would be clapping his hands."

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