Professor John Wyver’s ‘RSC Live from Stratford-upon-Avon’ is bringing Shakespeare to wider audiences than ever before.
Under Wyver’s leadership, ‘RSC Live…’ has become one of the two most successful ‘event cinema’ projects in the UK, alongside NTLive.
A single ‘RSC Live…’ broadcast can reach roughly the same sized audience as a whole year’s worth of traditional Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) Stratford productions of Shakespeare.
“With John as producer, these recordings have opened up vital new ways of the RSC reaching wide audiences both within the United Kingdom and internationally, ” says Gregory Doran, the RSC’s Artistic Director.
“The leading creative producer in Britain…”
Wyver’s conception of ‘RSC Live…’ was based on years of research into television and film adaptations of Shakespeare plays, and his own experience of producing them for the RSC.
As sole creative producer, Wyver has led every ‘RSC Live…’ broadcast, from its debut Richard II, starring David Tennant, in 2013.
The CEO of Trafalgar Releasing, Marc Allenby, the UK’s main distributor of event cinema productions calls Wyver “the leading creative producer in Britain of Shakespeare performances for the screen”.
The project has allowed the RSC to make its own screened productions in-house, for the first time, and “retain full creative control”, Doran says.
The production processes that John has coordinated has meant that the company has been able to create screen adaptations of the highest quality at a significantly lower cost than was previously the case.
Gregory Doran, the RSC’s Artistic Director
‘RSC Live…’ is also building high-quality archive of RSC stage performances, preserving a chunk of Britain’s literary and theatre heritage for future generations.
Wyver screen-produced ‘Shakespeare Live! From the RSC’ in 2016 (marking Shakespeare’s 400th birthday), which live-streamed on BBC Two and across UK cinemas and was later broadcast on PBS and other international networks.
Featuring the likes of Helen Mirren and Dame Judi Dench, the event aimed, in the words of former BBC Director-General, Tony Hall, to “get more people excited about Shakespeare than ever before”.
Bringing Shakespeare to the classrooms
The RSC’s mission, as stated on the RSC website, is to “inspire and captivate audiences and transform lives through amazing experiences of Shakespeare's plays and of great theatre”.
“Under John,” Doran says, “the ‘RSC Live…’ series has been central to achieving this mission.”
Between November 2013 and early 2020, each of the broadcasts, produced by Wyver, was shown in up to 700 cinemas worldwide, with a total of more than 18,000 screenings.
Around 376,000 UK school pupils have viewed ‘RSC Live…’ performances through the RSC’s free Schools’ Broadcasts’ programme, which occur at set dates and times, with accessible versions for children with hearing difficulties.
Teachers have reported the powerful impact broadcasts can have on lower achieving children – particularly in areas like extending vocabulary.
“It helps you understand the plot, because when you’re reading it, it’s just words,” one pupil said of the events, which include educational activities for students and live Q&As with the actors.
“It’s really helped with my GCSE,” another reported.
Dr Taryn Storey’s analysis of these school broadcasts found 87% of pupils were watching an RSC production for the first time, while 57% were seeing Shakespeare for the first time.
Perhaps most significantly, 82% of schools said the broadcasts had made them consider taking children to see an RSC production in a theatre.
One teacher commented the broadcasts “gave our kids the opportunity to see the RSC for the first time in their lives”.
“Instead of being outside looking in, noses pressed against the windowpane, the window was opened, and we felt like we were in the room,” they added.
Navigating the pandemic
The project not only helped the RSC stay connected with audiences throughout the pandemic, but also provided support to those working in the creative sector.
“The RSC Live from Stratford-upon-Avon recordings produced by Professor John Wyver have been of considerable importance to the company during the Covid-19-enforced closure of our theatres,” says Rebecca Preston, Development Director at the RSC, adding: “Once our theatres closed [in March 2020] it was essential to remain in touch with all of our audiences here and abroad.”
When he established ‘RSC Live…’ Wyver and his RSC colleagues included a rights framework, which meant the company could commercially exploit productions, in all media forms, subject only to cast and stage creatives’ royalties.
The 30 productions to date are now available internationally as DVDs, on the subscription-based video-on-demand (SVOD) services Marquee TV, BroadwayHD and Digital Theatre, and the educational SVOD service Drama Online.
Sales revenue from such streaming and DVD sales generated income for cast members during the most challenging months of lockdown, when many performers could not work.
More broadly, the significant investment by the RSC in ‘RSC Live…’ has provided vital funding for various parts of the UK creative sector, including actors, designers, stage crew and editors, as well as support services such as equipment hire companies.
Doran describes Wyver’s “unparalleled research” as “instrumental” to the RSC’s decision to commit to the full canon of 36 RSC Shakespeare screen adaptations, which will continue to benefit both audiences and the creative industry.
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