An Outdoor Production Celebrating Shakespeare's 400th Anniversary
Performing arts students celebrated Shakespeare’s 400th anniversary by staging an open-air production of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ in June 2016. More than 40 students from across Queen Margaret’s performing arts programmes worked with staff to create a truly magical evening of theatre.
As part of this production, QMU worked in partnership with students from both the University of Edinburgh and Edinburgh Lighting and Sound School. The public performances took place over a week in June with open air productions staged within the grounds of QMU and at the beautiful Dunbar Close Gardens on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile. The audience got into the mood of these special outdoor productions by perching on fold-up chairs or lounging on picnic rugs whilst enjoying steaming cups hot chocolate as the performance unfolded.
Following the success of this production, QMU drama lecturer and director, Kate Nelson, continued to engage QMU students and graduates in outdoor performances, staging plays in various interesting locations including her own allotment on the west side of Edinburgh’s Botanical Gardens.
Kate and theatre company Nutshell won a Fringe First Award in recognition of her play ‘Allotment’. The Scotsman Fringe First awards are the most prestigious and sought-after theatre awards at the Edinburgh Festival, and recognise outstanding new writing premiered at the Fringe Festival.
