THE nation is being invited to join in with one of next year’s major productions from the Royal Shakespeare Company when it marks Shakespeare’s 400th anniversary.

Announcing its productions for the spring and summer of 2016 the RSC has plenty of highlights on offer at Stratford-upon-Avon - especially A Midsummer Night’s Dream: A Play for the Nation, which will be co-produced with 14 amateur companies from every region of the UK when it goes out on tour.

Added to this the RSC is inviting every school in the country to join the Dream Team and be part of their celebrations with A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Other highlights for next year are Hamlet, which will feature Paapa Essiedu in the title role, while Melly Still will be directing Shakespeare’s late romance, Cymbeline.

In the neighbouring Swan Theatre the RSC will be marking 400 years since Ben Jonson’s First Folio and the death of Cervantes with Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe - directed by Maria Aberg, also Don Quixote, newly adapted for the stage by James Fenton from Miguel de Cervantes’ comic novel and directed by Angus Jackson, with David Threlfall as Don Quixote and Rufus Hound as Sancho Panza, and there will also be Ben Jonson’s The Alchemist.

There’s also growing excitement regarding the re-opening of The Other Place in 2016. This will be in April and sees the return of the RSC’s studio theatre, a new café and a brand new Page to Stage tour.

That same month the Swan Wing will also re-open following major heritage restoration and then later in the year a new exhibition - The Play’s the Thing - will open in June, revealing the secrets and stories from over 100 years of theatre-making history in Stratford.

To mark Shakespeare’s 400th birthday, which is on April 23, there’s going to be a fun-packed day of free outdoor events, including a breath-taking show by acrobatic company, Mimbre, inspired by Shakespeare’s stories, and firework display.

The Shakespeare Show - a working title - will be broadcast live on BBC2 from the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. This is a special evening event hosted by David Tennant, celebrating Shakespeare’s legacy across all the arts, in a unique collaboration between the RSC and the BBC.

As ever the RSC is keen to show its backing for education and will be inviting every school in the country to join its Dream Team and be part of the celebrations revolving around A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Free resources for schools include 30 and 60 minute edited versions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and a specially-composed score, and these are now available at www.dream2016.org.uk.

RSC Education also plans to demonstrate the power of Shakespeare and live theatre to influence the confidence and aspirations of young people in a special symposium on July 5 while the Oxford University Press and the RSC is currently creating a new series of Shakespeare editions for 11 – 14 year olds.

For ten years, the RSC has worked with over 400 schools across England, giving young people a great first experience of Shakespeare’s work.

The schools are all recruited from areas of significant socio-economic disadvantage with limited access to cultural experiences. The initiative works over a three year period, with each school working in partnership with their regional theatre and the RSC.

It involves intensive teacher professional development, creative projects between young people and artists and performance festivals of work made by young people with the support of teachers and theatre directors. The programme will have reached 750,000 children and young people by next year’s 10th anniversary.

The RSC’s artistic director, Gregory Doran, said:“Stratford-upon-Avon is the place to celebrate Shakespeare’s enduring influence and 2016 is surely the year to come to his hometown.   

“Our summer season opens with Erica Whyman’s nationwide touring production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream: A Play for the Nation, which sees our professional company work with 13 partner theatres, 14 amateur companies and 580 schoolchildren. This truly national production celebrates the UK’s passion for theatre-making and one of Shakespeare’s most loved plays.

“Our main house will then be home to one of the most famous and performed plays in the Shakespeare canon, Hamlet. In this production, directed by Simon Godwin, we hope to reveal new layers to this complex and inexhaustibly compelling play.”

All of which means 2016 should be quite a year with plenty to look forward to in Stratford.