THE ‘prodigiously talented’ casts and creative team for the plays to be performed at Europe’s first pop-up Shakespearean Theatre in York this summer will be announced on the Bard’s birthday.

Two separate companies of actors will perform A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Macbeth, and Richard III and Romeo and Juliet through the summer at Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre, which is to be built in the Castle Car Park near Clifford’s Tower.

Producer James Cundall, who is CEO of Lunchbox, the international theatre company behind the project, said: “We have assembled a prodigiously talented creative team of directors, choreographers, costume and set designers, fight directors, composers and special effects advisers, who will also be announced with the cast on April 23, Shakespeare’s birthday.”

He said work in building the huge 950-seat theatre had progressed well at specialist firm Acorn Scaffolding in Sherburn in Elmet, unaffected by the bad weather brought by the ‘Beast from the East’ as a covering had been provided.

Creative teams had visited on Tuesday for their first view of the space they would be working in, and had been hugely impressed, and very minor changes had been be made to accommodate their plans.

He said work in building the theatre in York would begin on the Spring Bank Holiday weekend, with the first performance on June 25.

He revealed that 5,000 out of 8,500 special £10 tickets for school pupils had already been sold to schools from up to two hours away from York, with 2,000 available for free through bursaries.

Meanwhile TV’s rising star James Norton, from Ryedale, has said he is ‘thrilled’ about the theatre coming to York.

He added: “Growing up near York, you quickly appreciate how special and atmospheric the city is.”

Dame Penelope Wilton said: “As a Yorkshire-born actress who has had the privilege of performing many Shakespearean roles, I am so excited that Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre is coming to York.”