Students across the Island are gearing up for the Island's first Shakespeare Schools Festival later this month — and hoping the public snap up tickets for performances of some of the Bard's best-loved plays.

The Berkeley Institute is hosting the event from April 21 to 24 — with Bermuda College, Bermuda High School for Girls, Bermuda Institute, CedarBridge Academy and Warwick Academy taking part.

Abridged versions of Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra, The Taming of the Shrew, Henry V and The Tempest will be performed by students.

And, at a gala evening on April 23, all of the schools will perform excerpts of the plays at Berkeley's Atrium, which will be decked out for an Elizabethan-style banquet.

The evening is part of the Shakespeare 24 event, which will see 60 youth groups around the world stage adaptations of Shakespeare's plays at 7 p.m. local time on Shakespeare's 444th birthday.

Berkeley drama teacher Josephine Kattan explained how the festival came about after students from the school took part in the International Shakespeare Schools Festival in London last year.

"The students and myself enjoyed it so much that we decided we had to bring the concept back to Bermuda and try and sell the idea to schools in Bermuda and we were very successful in doing that," she told The Royal Gazette.

Mrs. Kattan said she and her young actors were starting to feel the pressure prior to their opening night performance of Romeo and Juliet.

"It's just beginning to hit us," she said. "We are just hoping that everyone will buy the tickets and come along and support their children."

Kiara Baxter, 16, from Warwick, is playing Juliet. She said the festival was good publicity for the school and the Island. "It's a showcase of Bermuda's talents and our new facility as well," she said.

Omar Ratteray, also 16, who plays Romeo, added: "I think it's awesome, if you think about it, because this is Bermuda's first Shakespeare festival. It's wicked."

To watch a video report of Berkeley students in rehearsal visit www.theroyalgazette.com. Tickets for all the performances, priced $15, and for the gala evening, priced $100, are available from the schools and Bermuda Bookstore.