All the World’s a stage for Buckden Primary School pupils

Award-winning local theatre company Shakespeare at the Towers (SatT) is aiming to inspire the next generation of acting talent by donating £2,000 to Buckden CE Primary Academy to help it replace its old stage.  

The funding was awarded to Buckden Primary School through a bursary scheme run by SatT Trust, a charity which aims to encourage the performing arts and build theatre skills in the local area. 

Reuben Milne, Chair of SatT Trust explained “One of the best ways to inspire young people to get involved in theatre is to get them up on stage. It’s therefore very exciting to be able to help Buckden Primary School be in a position to put on more school plays and concerts, helping a whole new generation of children experience the thrill of performing in front of an audience.” 

Buckden CE Primary Academy Headteacher, Michelle Heather, added “Our old staging was rigid, bulky and totally impractical for our needs, preventing us from doing as much as we would have liked with our young people. The new staging is lightweight, modular and easy to store and move, providing the flexibility to create the right arrangement for whatever we want to use it for.  

“When we heard about the bursary offered by Shakespeare at the Towers, we jumped at the chance to apply, and were thrilled when we heard that we’d been successful. The remaining funding was raised by our wonderful PTA, aided by the supportive parent body at the school, and we’re hugely grateful to both groups for their generous support which has already made a noticeable improvement to the day to day activities of the school.” 

The relationship between the two organisations has been further strengthened with the donation of some children’s costumes previously owned by Shakespeare at the Towers to Buckden Primary School, helping encourage the pupils to get involved. 

SatT is run by a group of trustees with the aim of supporting theatre and theatre makers in the Huntingdonshire/Cambridgeshire area. The SatT company performs an annual open-air production of a Shakespeare play at Buckden Towers giving local actors and crew the opportunity to hone their skills, whilst making high quality live theatre accessible to local audiences. 

In addition, the profits made from the production allows SatT to offer bursaries, helping individuals and groups in the area further develop their theatre and performance skills. Further artistic support can be provided thanks to the considerable amount of lighting equipment, staging and costumes owned by the Trust. At the discretion of the Trustees, equipment and costumes may be loaned out to schools, colleges and amateur theatre groups. 

Year 5 at Buckden Primary School will be staging The SpokenWord on June 5th, and tickets for Shakespeare at the Towers production of The Comedy of Errors at Buckden Towers, starting on Tuesday 23rd June are available from https://satt.org.uk/tickets/. Details of bursaries and grants available from Shakespeare at the Towers can also be found on the website https://satt.org.uk/charitable-trust/

Source:  SatT press release dated 27^th May 2026.