Shakespeare festival to take place in Sutton Coldfield in April

Photos of Shakespeare books in Sutton Coldfield Library (picture: FOLIO Sutton Coldfield)

Submitted by Zoe Toft

A special Shakespeare festival will be taking place in Sutton Coldfield this April.

The festival has been organised by FOLIO Sutton Coldfield, thanks to funding from the Royal Sutton Coldfield Town Council’s Community Grant Programme, grants from the Making a Different Locally Foundation, a Magic Little Grant from Localgiving and Postcode Community Trust, and a gift from a private benefactor.

FOLIO’s Shakespeare Festival will feature over 20 different events and activities across the town throughout April.

From street theatre to spoken word, alongside talks and walks about Sutton in the time of Shakespeare, films and plays made by community groups inspired by the Bard, photography and writing competitions celebrating Sutton’s creativity, Elizabethan dance workshops, music performances and much more across six different venues, with the highlight being a day of very special activities in Sutton Coldfield Library on the Bard’s birthday, April 23, this festival has something for everyone.

Jenny Wilkinson, FOLIO trustee, said, “Sutton Coldfield is mentioned in Shakespeare’s play Henry IV part 1, and we wanted to celebrate this by hosting a wonderful multi-arts festival, with a rich mixture of professional and community involvement, inspired by FOLIO’s participation in the ‘Everything to Everybody’ Project, a collaboration between the University of Birmingham and Birmingham City Council, with funding also contributed by National Lottery Heritage Fund and History West Midlands.”

Cllr Simon Ward, leader of the Royal Sutton Coldfield Town Council said,  “Royal Sutton Coldfield Town Council is delighted to be able to support this fantastic cultural event. Our town has a rich heritage and it's great to be able to bring the work of the favourite son of the Midlands to Royal Town in such an innovative, inclusive and accessible way - we cannot wait for the festival.”

As one of the many ways Sutton residents will be able to take part in the festival, FOLIO is running two competitions.

Will’s Word Wizards is a competition for 7-13-year-olds to create exciting new words for us to use during the festival; William Shakespeare introduced about 1,700 new words into English and inspired by Will, FOLIO is on the look-out for new words to have fun with.

The society is inviting children to use their wizarding powers to coin a new word, tell us what it means and what inspired it, write a sentence with it and then send it to them by March 27 to be in with a chance of winning a sack of ‘gold’ coins for themselves (actually £25’s worth of pound coins) and £125 worth of books for their school. Full details can be found here.

This green plot shall be our stage is a photography competition inspired by the fact that Gum Slade in Sutton Park is said to have inspired A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

They are also inviting everyone to grab their phone, compact or DSLR camera and submit beautiful, unusual and interesting photos of Sutton Park to be in with a chance of having their photo displayed in Sutton Library during the festival, winning an art print of their entry, and a postcard pack featuring the 6 best entries to the competition.

There are two categories for this competition - (a) Photos taken by children and young people aged 15 or under and (b) photos taken by people aged 16 or over. Full details can be found here.

To keep up to date as the festival programme is released and opportunities to get involved are announced,  members of the public are encouraged to sign up to FOLIO’s newsletter here or follow FOLIO on Facebook @FOLIOSuttonColdfield or Twitter @FOLIOsutcol

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