CELEBRATIONS will kick off soon for Shakespeare’s 450th birthday.

The Bard of Stratford-upon-Avon, who was born on April 23, looks set to strengthen his position as the people’s playwright as the year progresses as his plays are set to be performed around the country by an army of amateur theatre makers in village halls, community centres, pubs, castles, churches, and even in a quarry!

The Open Stages amateur companies have been busy building sets, sewing costumes and rehearsing scenes as they prepare for a frenetic year of performances beginning this month and playing through until April next year.

RSC Open Stages involves over 2,500 participants including teachers, police officers, car salesmen, former soldiers, serving sailors, IT workers, nurses, students and pensioners – all are members of the 100 amateur theatre companies taking part in the this project which stretches across the UK.

Each of these companies have been working with RSC professionals and its seven partner regional theatres, learning skills such as stage combat, stage management, acting and of course how to bring the words of the world’s most performed playwright to life. And each of these companies will be performing their own Shakespeare or Shakespeare-inspired production in a vast array of venues across the country.

Amongst the first to reach the stage were The Pirton Players, whose Orwellian take on Julius Caesar was staged in their local village hall in Hitchin. They were followed by the students of Leicester University, who inspired by the ongoing controversy over the fate of Richard III’s recently discovered corpse in the local car park, staged a production of Shakespeare’s play in the very cathedral where he is proposed to be buried.

Meanwhile in Stockport the Garrick Theatre, an amateur company more than twice the age of the RSC, performed The Winter’s Tale, a play last performed by them in 1906.

Coming up later this month, and in May, are two Hamlets - one performed in a disused Victorian swimming pool in Glasgow (Strathclyde Theatre), the other performed by students from St Andrew’s University in the style of a Danish crime drama. While the little performed Cymbeline is presented by Artisans Drama Society as a fairy tale and Bolton Little Theatre present have written a new play exploring the early lives of ‘Lear’s Daughters’.

The 100 amateur companies comprise of approximately 2,500 participants (the oldest being 80 and the youngest eight-years-old), later performances include Macbeth in a Cardiff shopping centre, The Tempest in a quarry in Durham, the Royal Navy performing A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the Second Sea Lords garden, Titus Andronicus in a Gulf War setting in Edinburgh, a female King Lear in London and a company of disabled actors staging Ilyria on Sea – based on Twelfth Night.

On the night of Shakespeare’s birthday there will a special fireworks display to mark the event which will illuminate the night skies following the performance of Henry IV part two at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and which will be centred around the famous Stratford venue.