One of the largest and longest running theatre education projects is celebrating its tenth birthday.

Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank has brought 150,000 school children to Shakespeare’s Globe since 2006 with thousands of free tickets.

This year Twelfth Night is being performed from 25 February to 19 March.

Patrick Spottiswoode, Director of Globe Education, said: “The real success is that the project is introducing students to Shakespeare and his plays as Shakespeare intended – through the power of play.”

This year more than 20,000 free tickets will be offered to all state secondary schools in London and Birmingham.

Georghia Ellinas, Head of Learning, Globe Education at Shakespeare’s Globe said: “It is important for school children to see a performance of Shakespeare in a theatre as the plays are performance texts and come to life when they are acted out and staged.

“When students are in the theatre – they are engaged from the start by the dynamic setting, respond to the play’s themes, enjoy the comedy and recognise the moral dilemmas the plays explore.”

In the last decade over £2million worth of tickets have been given out for 139 performances.

Morgan Melhuish, Head of Drama at Southborough High School said: “It is difficult to quantify arts impact, but it is clearly demonstrated in real world outcomes.

“They have experienced it, they’ve thought about it and they’ve developed a personal response and relationship to the text and to Shakespeare. The effect is palpable.”

70 per cent of schools that attended said they would teach the play Shakespeare’s Globe was intending to perform.

Deutsche Bank has confirmed funding for the next three years.

Twelfth Night plays from 25 February to 19 March at Shakespeare’s Globe. 

Photo credit Ellie Kurttz.