Shakespeare Workshops for Schools
Bring Shakespeare to life with schools theatre outreach that is engaging, accessible, and tailored to your students. Wild Will Theatre Company works with schools to deliver Shakespeare workshops and school drama workshops that help young people explore language, character, theme, and performance with confidence.
Based in the South Hams, we create interactive sessions for Year 6 and above that support classroom learning while making the plays feel relevant, exciting, and memorable. Our workshops are designed to spark curiosity, improve understanding, and encourage students to take part, ask questions, and enjoy the process of learning through drama.
Rob Heyland
Wild Will is the brainchild of Rob Heyland. Rob studied drama at The Central School of Speech and Drama. He acted for over 20 years, starring in TV drama series and playing many lead roles in the West End and at the Royal Shakespeare Company. As a distinguished, BAFTA award-winning screenwriter, he has also worked on many prominent TV series. Rob has also run arts centres and theatre,
and has worked with Judi Dench, Mark Rylance and Steven Berkoff.
Experience in Schools
Rob did not enjoy studying Shakespeare at school but joining the RSC turned this around. While at Stratford he ran classes at Alcester Grammar, St Benedict's and
Evesham High School, inspiring GCSE and A Level students to achieve improved exam results. Before moving to Holbeton he lived in Ireland and worked with Rathdown School for Girls, one of Ireland's foremost colleges.
Opportunities for Schools
Wild Will can now bring an inspiring and interactive understanding of Shakespeare's words and intentions into schools. Rob has a very easy and accessible manner. The young like him; his boundless enthusiasm and joy are infectious and by generating real
engagement, exam results will benefit.
With charitable status Wild Will is able to secure
outreach funding. Working closely with teachers the company is keen to learn how best it can contribute and is confident it can bring something truly worthwhile to the learning process. Around 10 school children are already involved with the company, playing leading parts and minor roles. The cost to schools Wild Will Theatre can now deliver subsidised workshops. Costs are usually only the expenses of those involved.
Sessions are planned to last around 45-60 minutes.
Wild Will Brings Macbeth to Millbay Academy
A reflection from Deputy Headteacher Anna Norman on a day of Shakespeare, inclusion and student confidence.
"By the end of the day, students weren’t just more confident about Macbeth. They were more confident in themselves—as readers, as thinkers, and, perhaps most importantly, as voices worth hearing."
Anna Norman
Deputy Headteacher | Millbay Academy
Tailored Workshops
All ideas will be tailored to a school's specific needs, focusing on students' studies while supporting the work of the teachers as fully as possible. A list of possible workshops follows below.
The objectives are to inspire students to see the essence of the plays and their context, to bring the text and the world of theatre alive, to improve confidence, have fun and to reach out to those who are disaffected or confused.
Teaching Methods
Taking the fear out of the text and savouring the breadth of language that still speaks to us after 400 years, often in startlingly modern and accessible ways. Examining the characters and how they each, in such varied and individual ways, express their feelings.
Examining how the themes and narrative of the plays lay bare the challenges of past and current times. Rob believes the word “play” is at the very heart of Shakespeare, a chance to step out of the humdrum and into another world, to be other than we are.
Student feedback
What's on
Summer 2025 will see two marvellous plays, performed outdoors at Mothecombe House and Gardens
