Shakespeare in Schools: The Shakespeare Society's Educational Programs

The Shakespeare Society’s educational outreach program is based on the belief that through our work students not only come to a better understanding and appreciation of Shakespeare, they also learn more about themselves and their relationships with others. Reading, acting, and discovering Shakespeare’s plays can be a profoundly personal journey for students and their teachers.

The Shakespeare Society views each educational program as a laboratory not only to develop literary and performance-based skills, but also to nurture skills that serve students throughout their lives, these include listening and responding, public speaking, self-presentation, diction and enunciation, relaxation techniques, physical and emotional self-assessment, self-discipline, and teamwork. Importantly, The Shakespeare Society’s educational programs integrate current academic goals and the New York State Board of Education learning standards. For more information about our Educational programming contact Rachel Zaslow at 212-967-6804.

Our program consists of five initiatives:  Shakespeare In Schools, The Hunts Point Children’s Shakespeare Ensemble, Y Shakespeare, the Shakespeare Insights Teen Internship Program and Teaching Teachers, all detailed below:

Shakespeare In Schools

Our Shakespeare In Schools initiative reaches over 3,000 ethnically diverse students in over 34 schools in all five boroughs of New York City. These students have had little or no exposure to arts in education, and some of the teachers who are expected to teach them Shakespeare have barely studied him themselves. In New York City schools, most young people only read Shakespeare, and, especially if English is not their first language, Shakespeare's vast vocabulary is often beyond the initial grasp of most children the Shakespeare Society serves. Bringing Shakespeare into the body presents the right amount of challenge for young people, and helps to bring the plays and poetry to life in their hearts. Recognizing that research has proven that exposure to and participation in the arts has a powerful and positive effect on educational achievement and self-esteem, the Shakespeare Society sends classically-trained professional actors and teaching artists into public school classrooms.

Our actors draw young people into the world of Shakespeare through movement, speech and performance. Teaching through performance helps students to internalize the language and meaning of the plays and to have fun! This program also helps the wonderful teachers with whom we work to deepen their own understanding of Shakespeare, to develop a repertory of methods for helping their students to connect with Shakespeare substantively, and to increase the confidence with which they teach Shakespeare when our actors are not there. Residencies range from one to ten sessions, and each one is the result of a customized, hands-on process of development and collaboration with teachers.

In addition, the teachers with whom we collaborate may submit a written proposal at any time during the school year to request funds for specific classroom needs relating to Shakespeare. In the past, these grants have provided textbooks, DVDs, and tickets to Shakespeare productions.

The Hunts Point Children's Shakespeare Ensemble
a collaboration with the Hunts Point Alliance for Children

On June 5th and 6th, in Hunts Point in the South Bronx, the poorest Congressional district east of the Mississippi, more than 25 fifth, sixth, and seventh graders from four Hunts Point Schools starred in a a production of As You Like It. For the entire 2009-2010 school year, Ensemble members enthusiastically came to a rehearsal space twice a week to work with the Shakespeare Society's dedicated teaching artists.  Inspired by the success of the Ensemble's first two productions, 2008's Midsummer Night's Dream and 2009's Tempest (each seen by an audience of more than 600), the performances of As You Like It -- including one at Manhattan's 52nd Street Project, were a smashing success.

Students work with the original text, learning to read, understand, speak, memorize and perform a Shakespeare play. This rigorous and intensive nine-month long creative and literary process is of particular importance in Hunts Point, a neighborhood where academic performance is generally far below national standards. Students who participate in our program are better prepared for future academic and creative pursuits, avoid in advance the "fear" of Shakespeare that often afflicts older students and adults, and vastly expand their working vocabulary.

In collaboration with our wonderful partner, the Hunts Point Alliance for Children, the Shakespeare Society works intensively with these children for an entire academic year on one Shakespeare play. Total immersion in the play, memorizing hundreds of lines and, after nine months of rehearsal and study,  performing the play, is, we believe, the only way for these children to experience Shakespeare profoundly enough that he and they can together transform the landscape of their minds. Our students form an ensemble where teamwork, the creative process, commitment and rigor all come together in a performance that is fully produced, complete with sets, costumes and live musicians.

Y Shakespeare

In collaboration with the YMCA of Greater New York and the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development, Y Shakespeare is a new after-school initiative. Teaching artists offer six-week residencies to students enrolled in several of the City’s YMCA programs. This academic year, our first in the program, we will reach more than 2,000 middle and high school students at ten YMCA sites located in all five boroughs of New York City. These students will reap the benefits of playing with the verse, speaking the language, performing sonnets and scenes from the plays and, we hope, eliminating the fear factor associated with the Bard before they have to tackle his works in school.

Combining academic rigor with the fun of acting out Shakespeare’s plays, this program is a unique way to introduce Shakespeare to young people outside school time and to integrate appreciation of his works into everyday life. Students explore themes that come up in current events and relate such themes to specific Shakespearean texts. Residencies often culminate in small performances or community events.

Shakespeare Insights Teen Internship Program

Shakespearean Insights is a work-based learning internship program. This year, after a formal interview and application process -- a valuable lesson in and of itself -- fifteen lucky high school juniors and seniors were chosen to participate in our year-long program. The program begins with twelve weeks of intensive after-school sessions, in which the interns and our Director of Education discuss the Bard, his plays and his relevance to modern life.  Through text study, movement training and study of teaching methodology, interns are trained to become assistant teaching artists. Young people often are reluctant to study Shakespeare -- this is where our interns come in!  It turns out that for many of our students Shakespeare is more fun when taught by someone who "speaks their language."  Partnered with a professional actor and teaching artist, our interns spend the spring semester working in the schools to bring Shakespeare to life for their younger peers, leading workshops and demonstrating through live performance the excitement and accessibility of Shakespeare.

This internship program encourages serious artistic exploration and work-based learning among the interns, thereby building confidence and self-esteem, developing appreciation of diverse artistic cultures and traditions, and inspiring a lifelong relationship with the works of Shakespeare and participation in the arts. Last year, all of our graduating seniors went on to college and were able to secure jobs in the arts.

Teaching Teachers

In addition to providing teachers with the invaluable experience of working and collaborating with a teaching artist in the classroom, the Shakespeare Society's education department provides professional development workshops for teachers. Drawing on the skills of well known educators, critics and actors, teachers learn innovative ways to teach Shakespeare, and share ideas and classroom experience with one another.  School administrators are also invited to attend these sessions in order to encourage them to champion the expansion of arts education in their schools.

Last year the Society organized two full day professional development seminars led by Mike LaMonico of the Folger Shakespeare Library. Over 100 teachers from city public schools attended, and, by coordinating with the Department of Education, the Shakespeare Society was able to provide such teachers with essential professional development credits.

For more information about our Educational programming contact Rachel Zaslow at 212-967-6804.