Everything to Everybody

E2E The School of Night aims to set up collaborations with partner institutions around the world to conduct a series of improvisation workshops, performances and lectures on Shakespeare and treasures from the Shakespeare Memorial Library. 

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Everything to Everybody was a University of Birmingham project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and AHRC with support from Birmingham City Council and History West Midlands. This four-year project engaged communities in Birmingham with one of the world’s greatest Shakespeare resources, the Shakespeare Memorial Library housed in the Library of Birmingham. According to its official evaluation over 275,000 citizens reconnected with this amazing collection.

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The School of Night were commissioned by E2E to provide a takeover day of improvised performances around the Library to celebrate and promote the Shakespeare Memorial Library. Named 10/400: Into the Shakespeare Verse, the event celebrated the tenth anniversary of the opening of the Library and the four hundredth anniversary of the publication of the First Folio. On 2 September 2023, along with improvisation company Shake It Up, the School offered a full programme of activities from improvising with archive materials and the Library’s copy of the First Folio (in the guise of Heminges and Condell), to corralling a captive audience of families into the creation of a new Shakespearean version of Cinderella.

Building on the enormous success of this event, Project Manager, Karin Thomson along with Sean McCann and Dylan Emery of The School of Night, are continuing the work started with E2E by initiating a new project, taking the legacy of the Shakespeare Memorial Library out to the communities and countries that donated to the collection over its one hundred and fifty year history.