Fans of the Bard will be able to watch six of his plays in the space of a week next spring when youngsters stage the first Bermuda Shakespeare Schools Festival.

Budding thespians from five senior schools and Bermuda College will perform abridged versions of some of Shakespeare's best-known works at the Berkeley Institute from April 21 to 24.

The event is the idea of students from the Berkeley Institute who were the only non-British students to perform at the Shakespeare Schools Festival in London earlier this year.

The 13 youngsters were so inspired by their experience that they decided the Island needed its own festival dedicated to William Shakespeare and that other schools might like to take part.

Warwick Academy, Bermuda High School for Girls, Bermuda Institute, CedarBridge Academy and the college all jumped at the chance and have already decided on their plays.

The college is to stage The Tempest — a magical play said to have been based by the Bard on the 1609 shipwreck of the Sea Venture on Bermuda's treacherous shores.

There will also be tragedy — BHS has chosen Macbeth — as well as romance, comedy and history. Berkeley pupils will perform Romeo and Juliet; Bermuda Institute has opted for Twelfth Night; CedarBridge will stage Antony and Cleopatra and Warwick will take on Henry V.

Berkeley drama teacher Josie Kattan said about 180 students would get to perform with hundreds of others watching in the audience each night.

Members of the public are also invited to attend the plays, none of which will last more than an hour, in Berkeley's 364-seat cafetorium.

"The students here are very excited," she said. "The children are so innovative and the knock-on effect is amazing. There is no competition element to it but we are expecting very high standards, just like the festival in Great Britain. It's very much about embracing each other."

On April 23 — Shakespeare's birthday — Berkeley will hold a gala as part of Shakespeare 24, a British initiative which is encouraging schools and youth theatres around the world to stage 45 and 30 minute adaptations of his plays at 7 p.m. local time.

Mrs. Kattan said audiences in Bermuda would see modern interpretations along with plays set in an Elizabethan context but that all would stay true to the language of Shakespeare.

For more information on Shakespeare 24 visit www.ssf.uk.com.