About S4K International

In 2021, Shakespeare 4 Kidz celebrates 25 years since the first ever production of S4K's A Midsummer Night's Dream at Woodlea Primary School in Surrey.

Back in the midsummer of 1996, junior children from the Woodlea Drama Workshop formed the cast of S4K’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, against a background of voices claiming “It can’t be done!” and “Junior School children can’t perform Shakespeare”. At the time, we knew of no other company successfully creating Shakespeare shows for Junior and Primary school children to perform. (*Ellie Kirk who played Puck in that production went on to appear as Celia and Phoebe in the National Theatre’s As You Like It.)

Since then, Shakespeare 4 Kidz have pioneered the creation and development of easy-to-understand and accessible versions of Shakespeare’s classics in a popular musical theatre format, which we called Musical Theatre Shakespeare.

With the creation of the S4K PlayPacks schools could now perform their own production of any of the six S4K titles. By ‘learning-through-doing’ these productions, schoolchildren have been able to easily absorb the plot, themes, characters and relationships within each story and engage more fluently with the full original text at secondary school once their vocabulary had further developed.

Over the past 25 years, S4K shows have been performed by schools in every English-speaking country in the world. S4K Education has supported learning in schools with empathetic-based workshops delivered in a classroom environment primarily at Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3, but also at KS1, GCSE and teacher-training levels.

The S4K Theatre Company has performed in theatres in the UK and overseas and its production have been enjoyed by millions of theatre-goers. We have partnered with EAZs and EICs to bring our shows to areas of the country and to school audiences who have not previously had the opportunity to attend theatre trips.

We have striven to pursue the CULTURAL ENRICHMENT of children and young people in THEATRES and in SCHOOLS everywhere we play. Our THEATRE PRODUCTIONS fuse Drama, Performance and Music into an exciting live musical storytelling style that is genuinely engaging, accessible and fun. Our acclaimed EDUCATION PROGRAMME of Workshops and Masterclasses are equally renowned.

We are proud to have played a part in bringing the world of William Shakespeare – the world’s most famous playwright and poetic dramatist – to the young people of the world.

S4K International's recent shows include:
  • ALADDIN (in theatres and schools across the UAE; Cultural Hall, Bahrain)
  • PETER PAN (Under the Bridge, Chelsea FC, London, England)
  • DOCTOR DOLITTLE (in theatres and schools across the UAE; Cultural Hall, Bahrain)
  • 3 BILLY GOATS GRUFF (in theatres and schools across the UAE; Cultural Hall, Bahrain)
  • THE JUNGLE BOOK ((in theatres and schools across the UAE, Oman and the Arabian Gulf)
  • THE SNOW QUEEN (Under the Bridge, Chelsea FC, London, England)
  • GOLDILOCKS & THE THREE BEARS (in theatres and schools across the UAE; Cultural Hall, Bahrain)
  • NARNIA (in schools across the UAE)
  • THE LITTLE MERMAID (in theatres and schools across the UAE)
  • S4K’s MACBETH (Centrepoint Theatre, DUCTAC; Cultural Hall, Bahrain)
  • THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF OZ (in theatres and schools across the UAE; Cultural Hall, Bahrain)
  • SNOW WHITE (in theatres and schools across the UAE / Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival)
  • PETER PAN (in theatres and schools across the UAE; Cultural Hall, Bahrain; Al Rayann Theatre, Qatar / Sharjah International Book Festival)
  • BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (in theatres and schools across the UAE)
  • S4K’s ROMEO & JULIET (Madinat Theatre, Dubai; Cultural Hall, Bahrain; Qatar)
  • PINOCCHIO (Sharjah International Book Festival
  • THE JUNGLE BOOK (in schools across the UAE)
  • THE SNOW QUEEN (in schools across the UAE)
  • S4K’s A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman)
  • WILLY WONKA THE MUSICAL (Centrepoint Theatre, Dubai)
  • ALADDIN (in schools across the UAE)
  • PINOCCHIO (in schools across the UAE)
  • PINOCCHIO (Al Rayann Theatre, Qatar & Alumni Club Theatre, Bahrain)
  • S4K’s MACBETH (Centrepoint Theatre, Dubai; Al Jaheli Theatre, Abu Dhabi; Cultural Hall, Bahrain; Al Rayyan Theatre, Qatar; The Sultan’s School, Oman)
  • S4K’s THE TEMPEST (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Qatar)
  • THE LITTLE MERMAID (in schools across the UAE)
  • S4K’s ROMEO & JULIET (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Bahrain)
  • S4K’s A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Sharjah)
  • HAIRSPRAY (Centrepoint Theatre, DUCTAC)
  • S4K’s MACBETH (Gibraltar)
  • ALADDIN (UK)
  • S4K’s THE TEMPEST (Gibraltar)
  • PETER PAN (UK)
  • S4K’s ROMEO & JULIET (Gibraltar)
  • S4K’s HAMLET (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain)

Julian Chenery

Julian is a Producer, Director, Writer and Actor and the creative force behind the internationally successful Shakespeare 4 Kidz.

A Member of the Writer’s Guild of Great Britain, the Directors Guild of Great Britain, The League of Independent Producers, Creative Industries Federation, Stage Directors UK, Mercury Musicals Development, Musical Theatre Network and UK Theatre, he has writes and directs all of the S4K adaptations.

Carolyn Chenery

Carolyn has produced all the S4K theatre tours since 1997, here in the UK and abroad.

She was behind the recent tours of Aladdin, Doctor Dolittle, 3 Billy Goats Gruff, Narnia, Goldilocks & the 3 Bears, The Wonderful World of Oz, S4K’s Macbeth and Snow White; as well as S4K’s Romeo & Juliet, Peter Pan, Beauty & the Beast, The Jungle Book, The Snow Queen, and Pinocchio in theatres and schools across the UAE, Oman, Bahrain and Qatar. She has worked closely with the Centrepoint Theatre, DUCTAC since it opened in 2006 and presented one of its first international productions in 2007 (S4K’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream). She works closely with schools clients in the UK and in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Al Ain, Ajman, RAK, Fujairah, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman – all of whom have either visited theatres to see her productions, or have received shows into their schools.