The Shakespeare society kicked off the first week of February with the Shakespeare-A-Thon. Stationed outside the Windsor building, they braved the biting cold to bring the Bard to campus farers. The Shakespeare-A-Thon follows on the tails of the society’s 5th Anniversary show which took place on January 25th. I spoke to Dan Jones, President of Shakespeare society, to share the motivation behind the Shakespeare-A-Thon and the 5th Anniversary Show.
‘Last year the RHUL Shakespeare Society were fortunate enough to win Best RAG Event at the Societies Ball with our Read-A-Thon, so this year we’re increasing the challenge and making the event bigger, bolder and bardier. In addition to reading the classic 37 plays, including the infamous Romeo & Juliet and Macbeth, we’ve thrown in 4 additional Shakespeare collaboration plays and all 154 Sonnets, which will all be read in 99 hours around the clock and out in the cold, all for charity. We also have our special ‘Bardification Tent’ where you can come along and play some games, and are also performing a staged reading of our spring term show, Cymbeline, in Egham. We’re raising money for local charity Dramatize, who aim to provide support for children with learning difficulties through the Performing Arts, and hope to raise over £1,000 for this incredible cause.’
‘So this year we’re celebrating our 5th Anniversary as a SU ratified society, and we wanted to celebrate all of our achievements by launching a very special season of events. We hosted our 5th Anniversary Show in which we invited previous cast members to return and re-create scenes from our previous shows from Much Ado About Nothing to Henry V. We also hosted a special ‘Tracing our roots to 1908’ exhibit, in collaboration with the RHUL Archives which showcased an extremely rare copy of the Second Folio dating from 1632, and a minute book documenting the existence of a Shakespeare Society at Royal Holloway from 1908 to the mid 1950’s. We also invited former committee members back to celebrate all of the societies achievements.’
The Shakespeare society are continuing the festivities by hosting a Masquerade Ball in Founders Dining Hall on March 10th, and their Spring Term Show, Cymbeline which will be the first time the society has ever used the SU Main Hall as a venue. If you like it as ruff as Shakespeare Society does keep your eyes peeled for future events!