About

The Shakespeare in the Streets Project History

A Sonnet Walk is a site-specific event that is part self-guided tour, part promenade performance. The audience are given a specially written route to follow and as they walk around a town, they encounter actors who perform 14 line poems as if they were mini-plays.

Shakespeare in the Streets was originally inspired by Mark Rylance’s Sonnet Walks for Shakespeare’s Globe in London, but Abigail Anderson has developed the idea into successful walks that have taken place in New York, London, Liverpool, Truro and Bury St Edmunds – not only using Shakespeare’s sonnets but also work by other poets.

The poetry and the places are used as inspiration not only for actors to create individual performances but we also invite fine artists, musicians and choreographers to create work based on the Sonnets.

Sonnet Walks are a unique way of encouraging audiences to view and interact with their surroundings, which celebrate a city as well as extraordinary poetry. The Sonnets depict love in all its forms, and as such are timeless and speak to everyone. A Sonnet Walk brings the contemporary and the classical into dialogue, creating a piece of theatre that is different to any other.

Shakespeare in the Streets was created by Abigail Anderson, Andrew Girvan and Eyal Israel in 2009 to bring together people and organisations involved in a range of different Sonnet Walk projects and to continue to develop the idea around the world. We’re pleased to work with different partners in different places so that each walk has a unique connection to its location and local artists.

Our Previous Projects

2007 New York City: produced in association with the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting

2008 Marylebone, London: produced in association with Scary Little Girls Theatre Company

2008 Liverpool: produced in association with Lodestar Theatre Company

2009 Marylebone, London: produced in association with Scary Little Girls Theatre Company

2009 Liverpool: produced in association with the Unity Theatre

2010 Bury St Edmunds: produced in association with Bury Festival and the Theatre Royal

Meet the team behind Shakespeare in the Streets

Abigail Anderson – Co-Director

Abigail is Associate Director at the Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds. Productions there and on tour include: Cider with Rosie, The Merchant of Venice, Jack and the Beanstalk, Three Men in a Boat, Twelfth Night and Art, as well as numerous Restoring the Repertoire readings. As a freelance director she has directed over 50 productions including: Is That a Bolt in Your Neck?, a spoof Gothic horror show which has been touring nationally, Oliver Twist for Love&Madness, Shakespeare in the Streets in Liverpool and New York, A Christmas Carol and Romeo and Juliet for Creation Theatre Company, an international tour of the cult Edinburgh Fringe comedy Shakespeare for Breakfast as well as The Zam Zam Room cabaret for the Battersea Arts Centre and a series of Tennessee Williams platform performances at the Royal National Theatre. Abigail has worked as an Assistant Director at the Royal Shakespeare Company and Shakespeare’s Globe.

Eyal Israel – Co-Director

Eyal’s theatre credits include: Directing PVT Wars by James McLure, QED by Peter Parnell and assisting Abigail Anderson on The Mill on the Floss and All’s Well that Ends Well & Oliver Twist, and Neil Sheppeck on La Ronde. Eyal’s film credits include: Second Assistant Cameraman on The Dress.

Andrew Girvan – Producer

Andrew is a theatre producer and performing arts manager. Having grown up in Edinburgh Andrew was drawn to the city’s annual Fringe Festival and has taken on a number of roles with companies and venues working as C venues Box Office Manager. Having gained his Associates Diploma in Musical Theatre from the London College of Music Andrew has a passion for musical theatre and undertook a placement with Perfect Pitch Musical Development and Andy Barnes Productions in the autumn of 2009. Andrew has experience in a number of aspects of new media production and marketing and was one of the first podcaters at the Edinburgh Fringe hosting the Whispered Prompt Podcast in 2006. Working as Station Manager of Re:place Radio he has built an audience for a network of 15 podcasts. An experienced Theatre Manager, Andrew has overseen front of house work teams at theatres in Liverpool and Edinburgh. Andrew is currently studying Music, Theatre and Entertainment Management at Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts.