THE next generation of Kenneth Branaghs and Helen Mirrens will have the chance to star and direct their own plays with Creation Theatre.

In just a week, youngsters will turn around their own re-tellings of some of the Bard's classics.

This week nine to 12-year-olds will be tackling Much Ado About Nothing, with members of the Oxford performance company.

Maddy Breen, education manager at the company, said: "Every week we give them a choice of three plays and they then go off and devise the play.

"We try and keep as much of the original text as possible in there.

"Sometimes it can be quite funny and sweet when you have six-year-olds acting as King Lear.

"We will also be holding some more specialised workshops for some of the older teenagers and they will be performing at the Ashmolean."

The play-in-a-week runs at different sites in Oxford for six weeks.

Workshops are available for either six to eight-year-olds and nine to 12-year-olds.

This week's performers were at Leckford Place School in Oxford.

For more information visit: reationtheatre.co.uk/education