QE actors honoured in Shakespeare celebrations

Young actors from Queen Elizabeth’s School were honoured with special invitations to perform at a top London theatre and at a gala dinner as part of the celebrations marking the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.

Six of the main QE actors who performed an abridged version of Hamlet earlier this year in the Shakespeare Schools Festival (SSF) were among just 52 pupil actors from seven schools across the country specially chosen to perform in front of a sold-out audience at the SSF gala performance at the Piccadilly Theatre.

And then at the gala dinner, QE was selected as one of only two schools to perform extracts of their play in front of an audience studded with famous actors including: Simon Callow, Dame Eileen Atkins, Dame Harriet Walters, Juliet Stevenson, Tamsin Greig, Sir Derek Jacobi, Mark Rylance (pictured with the boys, below), Fiona Shaw, Patterson Joseph and Sir Michael Gambon.

QE’s Drama Co-ordinator, Elaine White, said: “The gala dinner took place at the Middle Temple Hall in celebration of Shakespeare 400 and by invitation of celebrity photographer Alistair Morrison, who hoped to create an All the World's a Stage photo using a select group of actors closely associated with Shakespeare plays and sonnets.

“The students involved – six from QE and six from London’s Primrose Hill Primary School ­– performed a short interlude introducing the work of the Shakespeare Schools Festival with young people. They performed 'centre-stage' between the tables and interacted with some of the actors. We were then treated to a gourmet dinner, including caviar, in this very special venue.”

The boys involved, all from Year 13, were Jordan Tob-Ogu (who played Hamlet), Miles Huglin, Konstantin Nikolov, Alex Wingrave and directors Sahil Handa and Paavan Sawjani.

After the event, Ms White received a message from Mr Morrison: “Would you please thank the boys for their wonderful performances at Middle Temple Hall. I hope they all had a great time. They are very talented and really nice guys – they will go far.”