Shakespeare is not meant to be read in a classroom, it should be said out loud, played, and experienced!
All kids in England study Shakespeare at school. Think it’s boring? It’s time to think again. To help teachers bring Shakespeare to life and engage their students, Samsung partnered with the Royal Shakespeare Company to create an interactive and immersive Android app: Shakespeare as you’ve never experienced it before.
RE:Skakespeare is a playful deep dive into the universe of Shakespeare’s and the play “Much ado about nothing” – on and off the stage – bringing the past forward, and together classic and technology.
Role
Art Director
(Visual language, UI)
Client / Agency
Samsung / Cheil London
Keywords
Android app, education, Shakespeare
Awards
Canne Lions x3 , Webby Awards x2, Lovie Awards x2, FWA x2, The Andys x1, One Show Awards x1
Press
The Guardian, The Telegraph
Download the app
Classic vs modern
The challenge of the app was to bring Shakespeare to the 21st century for the children to relate. The art direction had to convey this merge, between classic theatre and the digital age.
We used the language of theatre in the settings, the videos are shot inside what resembles a rehearsal space, a 360 video is shot on the actual Royal Shakespeare Company stage, while we selected a palette of bright, digital colours and bold font treatments in the rest of the app interface.
Play, Practice, Perform
The app features a series of interactive games and videos, and is divided into 3 stages: Play, Practice, Perform – plus a 360 video experience.
The students go through the 3 stages in a linear journey: the completion of one stage unlocks access the next one.
Comedian David Tennant introduces each section in white a rehersal space, offering context and direction, inviting the children to take part.
PLAY
In the first section, children get familiar with the words of Shakespeare through games.
Remix Shakespeare's lines to Shlomo’s human beatbox, lip-sync with poet Indigo Williams’ Shakespearean love lines and put-downs or try Akala’s Hip-hop Shakespeare Quiz.
A 360 on-stage experience
Following this initial intro, children unlock an immersive on stage experience, and watch scenes from Much Ado About Nothing in amazing 360° action.
Kids can look around and get a feel of how it is to be on stage. They can also find out more about characters and the intrigue, using the hotspots dotted around the video.
PRACTICE
In the second section, children deepen their practice, improving the rythm of their speech and acting talent further, but this time working with RSC experts, getting into the ‘what, why and how’ of Shakespeare’s language.
PERFORM
Finally in the last section, choosing from 2 scenes and 2 characters from “Much ado about nothing”, students get to perform on a virtual Royal Shakespeare Theatre stage, in first person, opposite real RSC actors!
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