The Royal Shakespeare Company's Education Department Launches WRITE HERE WRITE NOW WITH MATILDA

The Royal Shakespeare Company's world premiere production of Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical has captured the imagination of young and old alike and continues to play to packed houses at London's Cambridge Theatre. It swept the board at last year's Laurence Olivier Awards, winning a record-breaking seven awards.

Inspired by the themes of Matilda the Musical, the RSC Education Department has created a groundbreaking free online resource which gives schools insights into the creative process of staging this award-winning musical, and invites children to create their own scripts and songs.

Write Here Write Now with Matilda is an interactive website that will inspire children to become creative writers, imaginative playwrights and avid readers. Through filmed interviews with the show's creators, Dennis Kelly and Tim Minchin, together with comprehensive teacher notes for use in the classroom, this innovative website will help make storytelling vivid, accessible and enjoyable for children and their teachers.

To celebrate the launch of Write Here Write Now with Matilda, the RSC is setting a National Writing Challenge inviting students aged between eight and thirteen to create an original script or song to be performed live in a special performance by the West End cast at London's Cambridge Theatre in June 2013.

Entries will go through a full script selection process by the RSC's Literary and Education Departments and six songs or scenes will be fully rehearsed by members of the Matilda company before being performed on stage in front of the students and their classmates, all of whom will stay on to see Matilda the Musical that evening.

Additionally, and building on the highly successful active teaching approaches to Shakespeare developed by the Royal Shakespeare Company, Write Here Write Now with Matilda will also offer Teacher Professional Development days, providing teachers with practical approaches to creative writing using Matilda the Musical as a springboard.

Catherine Mallyon, RSC Executive Director, said:

"It's clear from all the work we already do with schools that young people are just bursting with brilliant ideas and we're delighted that Dennis Kelly and Tim Minchin are such an integral part of this campaign to encourage children's creativity. As well as a website packed with resources to inspire young writers, we're launching a National Writing Challenge, which will see the best new songs or scenes submitted by children between 8 and 13 performed on stage at the Cambridge by the Matilda cast. We hope as many young people as possible will want to try their hand at script and song-writing and we're really looking forward to seeing the results."

For further information including the criteria for submissions please visit:

www.matildawritenow.org.uk

Matilda The Musical was commissioned by the RSC and played to sold-out audiences at the RSC's The Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon for twelve weeks from November 2010 to January 2011. It transferred to London's West End in October 2011.

The New York production of Matilda the Musical, produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company and The Dodgers, will begin previews on 4 March 2013 with opening night on 11 April 2013 at Broadway's Shubert Theatre.

Matilda The Musical is written by playwright Dennis Kelly, with music and lyrics by the anarchic Australian comedian, musician and composer Tim Minchin, and direction by Matthew Warchus.

The production is designed by Rob Howell, with choreography by Peter Darling, orchestrations, additional music and musical supervision by Christopher Nightingale, lighting by Hugh Vanstone, sound by Simon Baker and the special effects and illusions are by Paul Kieve.

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