You've probably spotted the coverage that's been given to the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare and to help you to capitalize on the potential, take a look at this website for the contact details of over 60 American Shakespeare Festivals who will have marked this important event.
If you replace the word America with Canada, you'll find seven more. The market gets bigger when you add your own local theatre, which may stage its own Shakespeare season and grows larger still when you think of drama teachers and professors who will be looking for an interesting program for their theatre and English literature Spring Break in 2017.
Why don't you offer these sources an eye catching, two centre program to London and Stratford upon Avon?
The London element should include a walking tour of Bankside, on the south side of the River Thames. This was the theatre district (and a great deal more) in Shakespeare's time and a guided stroll should start with the Shakespeare Memorial in Southwark Cathedral and a pub lunch at the George, London's last remaining galleried coaching inn.
Follow this with an expert led tour of the Globe Theatre which includes the candlelit, indoor Sam Wanamaker Playhouse before an evening of Shakespeare under the stars. It's an ideal place for families, as live demonstrations take place throughout the day with hands-on opportunities to learn about stage-fighting and Elizabethan clothing.
Expanding the theatre interest, you can add an actor-led tour of the Theatre Royal Drury Lane; the Velvet, Gilt and Glamour tour of the Royal Opera House; a backstage tour of the National Theatre; the Theatre and Performance Collection at the V&A; a performance at the Menier Chocolate Factory and an evening at the King's Head Islington, the first theatre pub since Shakespearian times.
Returning to the Bard, the route he would have taken to Stratford would have passed through the university city of Oxford where this year they're celebrating the anniversary in scholarly and surprising ways. Their plans currently include classic productions of his works, hip hop Shakespeare in a nightclub and the challenge of putting on all 37 of his works by the end of the year.
On the way into Shakespeare's England you can discover the role played by Blenheim Palace in Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet, one of the most ambitious Shakespearian productions ever filmed. The nearby Rollright Stones are reputed to have inspired the witch's scenes in Macbeth and the privately owned, moated Broughton Castle was the setting for some of the scenes in Shakespeare in Love.
To make your arrival in Stratford a little different, walk the final mile along the banks of the River Avon and reach the town on foot.
To get much, much more out of your two or three nights here, other must see and dos include:
• An experience of Elizabethan England as performed by the costumed characters and strolling players at the Shakespeare Houses. They can also provide out of hours' exclusive access tours with delicious catering and Shakespearian entertainment.
• To a matinee or evening performance at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, add a Front of House, Backstage or After Dark tour plus dinner in the Rooftop Restaurant. Their Family Tour shows how costumes are made, how effects are created, gives you the chance to handle some of the props and try on a costume. Their Page to Stage tour gives unprecedented access to the newly transformed rehearsal rooms and costume store in The Other Place.
• The Schoolroom and Guildhall which provides the missing chapter on where Shakespeare was educated and inspired to act and write.
• The Guild Chapel which houses some of the finest medieval wall paintings in the UK.
• Charlecote Park, the grand 16th century house where William Shakespeare is alleged to have poached rabbits and deer.
• The Compton Verney Art Gallery where they're staging 'Tempests, Tyrants and Tragedy', an exhibition that focuses on The Tempest, Hamlet, Macbeth and A Midsummer Night's Dream.
• A visit to the Elizabethan-style Shakespeare Memorial Library on the top floor of the state of the art Birmingham Library.
Contact the sources listed at the top of this column and use 400th anniversary celebrations to introduce them to something they won't have seen anywhere else.
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