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#AtHomeWithGSC

23rd April 2020

Surrey’s award-winning theatre company have curated a special online programme of activities to keep audiences entertained and inspired during the coming months. With everyone having to stay at home the Guildford-based theatre company wanted to be able to keep in touch with their audiences, and provide them with content that would stimulate and entertain.

Calling on help from the many actors and creative artists GSC have worked with over the past 14 years, and together with their own in-house team, the charity has devised a programme of work that can be accessed online for free, with different content every day.

Released on Mondays and Fridays, #TheseOurActors are short recorded performances by previous GSC actors of favourite speeches, sonnets or songs from, or about, Shakespeare. Tuesdays shine the spotlight on the GSC Team itself with individual members talking about their role at the charity. ‘A Chat With Matt’ (Co-Founder Matt Pinches) on Wednesdays is a live YouTube broadcast of a talk on Shakespeare’s life. Split into eight 30-minute episodes, these are broadcast at 7.45pm and include a live chat facility for audience members to ask questions. Finally, Thursdays see the release of a weekly Podcast, #GSCsRudeMechanicals, which features an interview with a member of the company’s creative teams, from sound design to choreography, from directing to vocal work.

“Though we are unable to produce any live theatre in our usual way right now, we wanted to be able to stay in touch with our audiences,” explains Matt Pinches. “Our audiences and our artists are central to everything we do. GSC is a family and in these unprecedented, difficult times it is of paramount importance that we all can find a way to keep in touch. We’re indebted to the time and talent our artist friends have donated in this way. Our hope is that alongside bringing a little colour to people’s daily lives, we are also ensuring GSC will continue to inspire and entertain once this is all over.”

Alongside the #AtHomeWithGSC content, GSC have also been working hard to ensure that the busy Education Department continues to provide opportunities for people to stay involved, be creative and in contact with their friends. All normal classes will run next term, starting w/c 20 April, and have been especially adapted to run online.

“We’re delighted that our popular weekly primary school clubs, Saturdays and adult evening classes will be running next term, and we’ve introduced a new Playwriting Adaptation course. We’re also striving to ensure the social isolation projects begun through our Brave New World initiative will also continue. At a time of such uncertainty, it’s more important than ever to offer people some sense of normality, and we are extremely pleased to be able to continue to run these classes”.

For full details of all the #AtHomeWithGSC content and the Education classes visit guildford-shakespeare-company.co.uk

Press Contact: Matt Pinches matt@guildford-shakespeare-company.co.uk