Shakespeare's Globe Restarts Guided Tour With Visitors Onstage For The First Time

After closing in March this year, The Globe Theatre opens its oak doors once more for guided tours from 21 August. As well as hearing about Shakespeare, the history of London and the renowned theatre itself, visitors will also have a once in a lifetime chance to stand on one of the most famous stages in the world. Alongside costumes worn by some of the most celebrated actors to have acted at the Globe, there will also be a photography exhibition in the space from theatre photographer Marc Brenner of previously unseen backstage images taken at the Globe during lockdown. An award-winning experience for the young and the young at heart, the tour normally welcomes over 350,000 visitors a year. The Globe's online shop has now reopened.

Neil Constable, Chief Executive of Shakespeare's Globe, said: "As an independent charity that currently receives no government subsidy, our hope is that any income raised from this festival will help support the Globe, artists and practitioners, as we all continue to look for new ways to share our work. After being closed for five months, reopening for our wonderful guided tours, giving access to the stage to our visitors for the first time, and the opening of our online shop and the Swan Bar & Restaurant are all ways in which we hope to welcome more and more people back through our doors to safely enjoy culture and experience in our iconic theatre before we are in a position to start performances again."

Tours will be running seven days a week with six tours a day until 20 September. Tickets must be pre-booked online for time slots to allow for social distancing. The tours happen outside, and precautions due to Covid-19 include hand sanitising stations, deep cleaning of toilets, face shields for the Globe Guides, and further systems to ensure social distancing. The open-air theatre is following all recommended safety measures amending normal operation of the tours to fit with all Covid-19 restrictions.

Online from 21 - 23 August, the Globe launches its first ever digital festival about Shakespeare and Race featuring a new two-part documentary about Romeo and Juliet, monologues from celebrated writers, a panel discussion, a brand-new season of the podcast 'Such Stuff', and workshops for 8-14-year olds.

'Behind Closed Doors: Romeo and Juliet' gives a sneak peek into the world of the rehearsal room where Director Ola Ince and actors Alfred Enoch, Rebekah Murrell, and Sargon Yelda gathered (socially distanced) in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse for an honest conversation about Shakespeare, race, beauty, and mental health in the play and the impact this has on them as artists and the audience.

On Saturday 22 August at 7.30pm, a series of new writing 'Notes to the Forgotten She-Wolves' celebrates history's forgotten and unsung women and features three monologues from ground-breaking playwrights Nicôle Lecky, Winsome Pinnock and Amanda Wilkin. These stories write back into history Bessie Coleman, the first woman and person of colour to hold a pilot's licence; Una Marson, the first woman of colour to broadcast for the BBC; and Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner, a woman of colour who invented the sanitary belt.

To mark International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition on 23 August, a panel discussion will be filmed in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, with Professor Karim-Cooper, novelist and academic Preti Taneja, Historian and President of the Royal Historical Society, Margot Finn and actor and director Elliot Barnes-Worrell, discussing British history, the colonial past, racial identity and how best to tell our collective stories.

A new series of the Globe's podcast 'Such Stuff' will be released, exploring 'whiteness'. This series includes contributions from artists Sarah Amankwah, Adjoa Andoh, Jade Anouka, Federay Holmes, Steven Kavuma and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith. Academics contributing to the podcast include Dr Steven Garner, Dr Shona Hunter, Dr Will Tosh, Dr Ruben Espinosa, and Dr Ambereen Dadabhoy.

On 21 - 22 August, live anti-racist workshop sessions will be held: for 8 - 10-year olds 'This Island's Mine' is based on The Tempest, and 'Haply for I am Black' for 11 - 14-year olds is based on Othello. There will also be a teachers' CPD on 21 August at 5pm on an anti-racist approach to teaching Shakespeare.

Started in 2018, the inaugural 'Shakespeare and Race' was conceived and curated by Professor Farah Karim-Cooper, the Globe's Head of Higher Education and Research and King's College London's Professor of Shakespeare studies. This year the festival finds its way online and is curated by Professor Karim-Cooper, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith and Michelle Terry. Most of the events are available for 24 hours from their first broadcast, so that conversation can happen wherever attendees are in the world. All events start from £5.

The Globe's online shop has now reopened with fantastic gifts, books, and DVDs. Anyone who joins the Globe as a Member will receive a 20% discount in the online shop as a thank you for their support.

The Globe site, though empty of the public, has been maintained with some urgent and necessary repairs taking place since March. Artisan Plastercraft was commissioned to undertake on-site surveys to ascertain the condition of the lime plasterwork at Shakespeare's Globe. The lime plastering, providing the world-famous white and oak exterior of The Globe Theatre, has been replaced in select severely weathered panels using traditional methods and materials that would have been applied in Shakespeare's day.

The Swan Bar & Restaurant are now open for business and are taking part in the Government's Eat Out to Help Out scheme.

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