The Lace Market Theatre is to stage Shakespeare's King John in April 2015 with the support of the RSC. The nationwide RSC Open Stages project has identified 80 community and amateur groups, from  nearly 200 applicants, to participate in a festival of Shakespeare plays between April 2014 and April 2015.

Support to  those involved in the production will be offered by theatre specialists and practitioners, and begins with a directors' weekend in Stratford at the end of September this year.  Cynthia Marsh,  who is directing the Lace Market Theatre production, says this is a great opportunity to learn from professionals across the range of skills needed to put on a stage show. The theatre will also benefit from the RSC publicity machine.

Selected groups will be invited to a festival in Stratford the summer of 2015 to mark the end of the first  phase of the project. Much further down the line, there will be opportunities to engage in an on-going project into 2016.

The Nottingham King John will have live music. The Lace Market Theatre is working with Music for Everyone, the independent community  arts organisation based in Nottingham and the East Midlands. Cynthia and Angela Kay, the artistic director of Music for Everyone, are planning a rich tapestry of music to reflect the medieval, Elizabethan and modern resonances of the production.

Lace Market Theatre: www.lacemarkettheatre.co.uk

Music for everyone: www.musicforeveryone.org