ALL the world’s a stage for 11 budding York performers as they participate in a two-week Shakespeare project that began earlier this week at the Upstage Centre Youth Theatre at 41 Monkgate. The summer school will conclude with three performances of Shakespeare's romantic comedy As You Like It next week.

‘We've been running Shakespeare projects for years, but this one’s really special," says artistic director Joshua Goodman. "This project will give our young actors, aged 14 to 21, a real taste of a professional rehearsal process and a chance to work with a comic masterpiece. What with Shakespeare’s 450th birthday celebrations going on this year, it feels like a great time to be giving young people the opportunity to get their teeth into a classic text."

The project is led by Royal Shakespeare Company director Mel Cook, who is not only putting the young performers through their paces, as if they were a professional company, but also testing and pushing the artistic vision. "I'm experimenting with ideas and exploring the text in ways I often can’t in professional productions," she says.

The young cast can only benefit from their fortnight's work, believes Mel. "Shakespeare trains your mind, and it trains your heart. Teaches you how to think, and how to feel," she says. "Studying the works of Shakespeare is studying what it is to be human; all the rich, poor, majestic, crude, beautiful, and tragic truth of the human condition encapsulated in one canon. Not a bad way to spend two weeks."

Among those taking part is 15-year-old Georgie Bryan, who says: "This intensive two-week project is really exciting because it gives you the chance to really get into it. We’ve only been going a few days and already I feel like it’s my whole world."

As You Like It will be performed at 41 Monkgate at 7.30pm on August 8 and 2.30pm and 7.30pm on August 9. Tickets are available online at upstagecentre.org.uk