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Stratford Sports Club join Royal Shakespeare Company for summer of activities

It was a summer to remember for our club based at Stratford Sports Club as they were invited by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) to participate in an exciting local community project which culminated in a creative sporting dance!

In February, the club was approached by the team at the RSC to take part in the "At the Forest's Edge" project – which was in recognition of their two main summer performances - "Hamnet" and "As you like it" connecting with a number of local groups to celebrate nature and communities in Stratford-upon-Avon.

So come the summer months, our Stratford club, along with six other local community groups, were supported by the creative team put together by the RSC, to show how we, in the modern day, interact with our wider community.

Alongside their usual club session, the RSC assigned a Lead Artist, Emma Waterford, to the club as they took part in a wide range of activities including poetry sessions, working with clay and plants to create fantastic tiles and plates.

As part of the project, each community group were asked to display a willow sculpture to show the human stories in Stratford-Upon-Avon. The Sporting Memories club designed a willow sculpture, called Scatter - forming a shelter over a commemorative bench located at the front of the Sports Club.

The final part of the project saw our club create a unique dance which they performed at an open-air celebration of the project with other community groups in June. Using the club’s Sporting theme, the group devised a dance of sporting moves, including cricketing umpire signals and playing football, which they performed with great gusto.

Anne Tubb, who leads our Sporting Memories club in Stratford, reflected on how much the members got from being part of the project.

“We weren’t expecting to be part of something so non-sports related, but it was great experience for the club throughout the summer. The group had a lot of fun creating poetry detailing how their senses were inspired by sport and we have to thank Emma for being really patient with all of us as we got our creative juices going.

“It was great we could bring everything together, demonstrating our love for sport to the community with our performance for At The Forest Edge’s celebration event.”

You can find out more about The RSC’s ‘At The Forest’s Edge’ project by visiting their website here - https://www.rsc.org.uk/events/at-the-forests-edge