Members Spotlight: Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation

For our April spotlight, we chatted with Mike Tucker, Head of Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation, to understand how the organisation is helping today’s youth reimagine and engage with Shakespeare, and the impact that can be unlocked when collaborating with institutions across education and the cultural sector.

Who are you and what do you do?

Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation is a theatre education charity that gives young people the confidence and skills to succeed in life. We use the unique power of Shakespeare to transform lives.

The world’s largest youth drama festival lies at the heart of our work. Every year, we engage thousands of pupils from every community, background and school type across the UK. Months of preparation culminate in exhilarating performance evenings in professional theatres nationwide; nights which can give confidence and self-esteem to last a lifetime.

Alongside this, we deliver high-impact standalone workshops in primary, secondary and SEND schools across the UK, using drama to build confidence, oracy, creativity and a sense of belonging.

What are you currently working on?

As you read this, young people from three local schools will be onstage at The Source Theatre in East London, going through final preparations and running their dress rehearsals. Today’s performance is the penultimate of the 2025-26 Shakespeare Schools Festival. Following 119 events in 60 venues across the country, we’ve supported more than 9,000 young people to perform abridged Shakespeare plays on professional theatre stages.

As this year’s Festival winds down, attention is already beginning to turn towards next year’s programme. Our team are hard at work, engaging schools and theatres across the UK and programming our 2026-27 work. With another 300+ schools likely to take to the stage next year, there’s much to be done!

What has been your organisation’s proudest achievement?

Last year, we celebrated the 25^th anniversary of Shakespeare Schools Festival. As part of the celebrations, we reached out to some of the more than 350,000 young people who have passed through the programme since its inception. Their stories were inspiring.

We heard from Evie, who now works in a senior role at Channel 4. She told us that taking part in the Festival as a child was “the first time I’d properly felt like a grown-up within a school environment”.

We heard from Greg, who founded an events photography company inspired by his experience in the Festival as a student. He told us about “how big a deal” performing is for our young Festival participants and how “incredible a moment this is in a young person’s life”.

And we heard from dozens more alumni who have taken on the Festival challenge, shone under the bright theatre lights, and gone on to incredible things in their personal and professional lives. To see the power of the arts in this way was a proud moment for all of us at Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation.

How is your organisation working to champion EDI within your sector?

Our work brings together students from all walks of life. 10% of our participating Festival schools are SEN schools, and we ensure that young people in these settings have the opportunity to perform onstage, showcase their achievements and be celebrated alongside their peers in mainstream settings.

The free technical theatre workshops we run in partnership with Criterion Theatre support young people of all backgrounds and abilities to gain insight into the technical theatre industry. Through our Youth Board, we match a diverse cohort of young people to industry professionals who can advise them on routes into the creative industries.

What are three things you’re loving in your sector right now?

We’re thrilled to see organisations working together to harness the power of theatre and the arts in new and innovative ways. In the past year, we’ve partnered with the College of St Hild and St Bede at Durham University and Magdalen College to give hundreds of children the chance to perform while experiencing higher education environments that build aspiration and skills for life.

It’s great to see outstanding theatre made for schools being made across the capital. Recently, some of the team saw Shakespeare’s Globe’s Playing Shakespeare production of Romeo and Juliet and loved experiencing such high-quality theatre purposefully created for young people.

We’re also very happy to see how much love technical theatre roles are getting. From the National Theatre’s Skills Centre, to our own technical theatre workshops at Criterion Theatre, it feels like there’s a move across the industry to make this strand of work more visible to the theatremakers of the future.

And three things you’re not loving so much in your sector?

We know how tough things are for so many theatres and theatre professionals right now. With the cost-of-living making things more challenging for audiences, and running costs bearing down on venues directly, we’re really cognisant of how challenging this moment is for the sector.

That, for us, is probably 1, 2 and 3 at the moment. There are so many talented, creative and inspiring people across this sector with so much to offer schools and young people. We hope the next chapter unlocks the resources, partnerships and reach they need to inspire far more young people.

Who would be your dream collaborator/collaboration?

We’re very lucky to work with an incredible group of patrons and supporters. Last year, we hosted a one-off fundraising performance onstage at the Criterion Theatre, Is Shakespeare Funny? featuring a host of wonderful, talented creatives. Collaborators on the project included director Josie Rourke, with contributors Richard Ayoade, Lee Mack, Professor Emma Smith, Miles Jupp and Paterson Joseph, and writer Jonathan Myerson. It was a real treat to work with so many talented figures from across the creative industries.

(c) David Monteith-Hodge – ‘What You Will’ Gala

What does creativity mean to you?

In our context, creativity means giving young people the opportunity and licence to reimagine Shakespeare. We embrace the myriad ways young people choose to express themselves through performance, re-moulding Shakespeare to their needs and their interests.

Through our Theatre and Film Festivals, we’ve seen everything from musical Macbeths to sci-fi Julius Caesars. When young people are given permission to explore and experiment, we find their creativity shines through in thrilling and unpredictable ways. We learn so much every year about these centuries-old plays.

What’s next for your organisation?

Over the next year, we’ll work with more than 10,000 young people through our Theatre and Film Festivals, and our standalone workshops. Our CPD training will upskill hundreds of teachers nationwide to bring drama into the classroom.

Last year, we launched our 2030 strategy All the World’s Our Stage, outlining how we plan to work across the education and young people’s sector to unlock confidence, opportunity and creativity. We’ll deliver more work with teachers and young people in specialist settings delivering for young people who face the biggest structural disadvantage.

What do you think needs to change in the UK’s Cultural and Creative Industries?

At Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation, we want to see better chances for children. We know that too many school drama lessons are being taught by non-specialists, and too many young people are missing out on opportunities to study drama altogether.

We were heartened by some of the conclusions of the recent Curriculum and Assessment Review and the Government’s response, but we know that without more and better-resourced drama provision for young people, paths into the cultural and creative industries will look steeper and narrower to young people considering taking their first steps in the creative industries.