The 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death in 2016 is one of the most significant ‘soft power’ opportunities since the Olympics to celebrate the UK’s achievements globally. As one of the world’s most influential poet-playwrights, Shakespeare is a powerful cultural attractor and is recognised as one of the UK’s greatest cultural icons. He addressed issues that are as relevant today as they were four centuries ago, and his work continues to be performed, interpreted and translated all over the world.

During 2016, the British Council will be staging Shakespeare Lives globally: a major programme of events and activities celebrating Shakespeare’s work in the 400th anniversary year of his death. This important anniversary represents an opportunity to enhance and reinforce the UK’s reputation as a nation of creativity and innovation with a rich cultural heritage.

Play your Shakespeare is a digital mass participation project, which will encourage people to watch, create and share content globally on Chinese social media.

We would like to invite UK institutions to join this campaign, using Shakespeare as a cultural hook to improve English language teaching and learning, and raise awareness of the UK as a global leader in the English language.

How to get involved

The campaign is free and open to all UK English Language Teaching institutions.

Participants need to film a short video presenting an individual or a group reading a short cut of William Shakespeare’s work. The name/logo of UK institution will be shown in the video.

The British Council will also provide:
- studio filming in London (date TBC)
- post-video production and editing with Chinese subtitles
- financial support for independent filming (maximum of GBP500 per video, to cover necessary costs only).

When expressing your interest, please indicate if you would like to join our studio filming sessions or prefer to film independently with financial support if possible.

Please note we can only cover the filming cost for 20 UK institutions, and can therefore not guarantee the inclusion of all expenditures. We do welcome and encourage all UK educators to join, and your support and understanding will be highly appreciated.

Key dates

Raise your interests by 28 January 2016
Share your contents with us by 3 February 2016
Film in the UK in the week of 15 February 2016
Finish editing in March 2016

UK institutions interested in this opportunity should contact Ms Si SU via su.si@britishcouncil.org.cn