Bringing Shakespeare to Life｜RSC Residency at DHSZ
The annual Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) Residency is a distinctive part of the Dulwich educational experience, offering students and teachers the opportunity to engage directly with professional theatre practitioners. As part of the longstanding partnership between Dulwich College International and the RSC, the residency brings Shakespeare beyond the page and into the classroom, creating an immersive and collaborative learning environment.
This year, Dulwich International High School Programme Suzhou was pleased to welcome back RSC Associate Practitioner Joseph Arkley. Building on established relationships with students and staff, the residency once again combined performance, direction, and pedagogy, enabling participants to experience Shakespeare’s work from multiple perspectives.
“It was fantastic to welcome Joe back to Dulwich Suzhou for his third visit, continuing to build real relationships with our strongest performers. During the visit he led lessons and after-school workshops exploring Macbeth and Julius Caesar, guiding students not only in performance but also giving some the chance to develop their directing skills. Students left the experience feeling more confident, creative and connected to Shakespeare’s work.”
Across the week, students engaged in a series of workshops that emphasised physicality, interpretation, and collaboration. Through guided exercises and scene work, they were encouraged to explore how movement, voice, and expression contribute to character development and storytelling.
As Sycamore C, Year 12, reflected: “Under Mr. Joe's teaching, I learned more acting techniques and understood how to better build a character through movements and expressions.”
For some students, the residency also provided the opportunity to step into new creative roles. Jenny Q, Year 12, shared her experience of directing: “Through this experience, I'm very grateful that Mr Joe provided me the opportunity to direct one of the scenes in Julius Caesar. This is my first time to be a director of a Shakespeare drama and I love to try other scenes from the story. One thing that can be improved is the time wasn't enough for us to finish performing even just one scene, therefore I wish the time period for workshop could be longer next year. I'm very looking forward to next year's Shakespeare workshop.”
Beyond student workshops, the residency also extended to professional development for teachers. A dedicated RSC session on oracy explored how drama-based approaches can be applied across subjects, encouraging interdisciplinary thinking and creative pedagogy.
“During the teachers’ RSC workshop on oracy, we explored Twelfth Night through engaging learning strategies that can easily be adapted for our own classrooms. The session encouraged us to think creatively about how drama-based activities might support learning in subjects such as Biology or Maths. Along the way, we also had plenty of fun. Using our imagination, we took part in an unexpected form of team-building that turned out to be quite amusing.”
Through experiences such as the RSC Residency, students are encouraged not only to develop performance skills, but also to build confidence, communication, and creative thinking. The programme reflects Dulwich’s wider commitment to learning beyond the classroom, where collaboration with leading organisations creates meaningful and lasting educational experiences.