Program/Grant: Shakespeare in American Communities: Schools

Catskill Mountain Shakespeare presents a traveling school tour of “Romeo and Juliet” in Spring 2025 throughout the Catskill mountains of NY state. Study guides, talkbacks and post performance workshops will be offered by CMS Teaching Artists.

In April 2025, as part of the 2024-2025 Main Stage Season, Cincinnati Shakespeare Company will present six educational matinee performances of Shakespeare’s "The Tempest” for 1,400 seventh – twelfth grade students from across the Greater Cincinnati region. Alongside performances, students will receive pre- and post-show discussions, backstage tours, workshops, and in-school residencies.

CSC will share a fully staged production of MACBETH with some 6,000+ Boston area students, through 8 student matinees, as part of its annual Stage2 production in spring 2025. The play will be tailored to a student audience, feature a diverse cast of early career actors, and be enhanced with educational elements including school workshops and post-show conversations.

To support the Shakespeare-in-the-Schools tour which will take professional actors to stage an abridged, modern adaptation Shakespeare's Hamlet to impact 6000+ students at minority-serving public high schools throughout metropolitan Miami. The program includes pre-performance visits by teaching artists, interactive study guides, and post-performance talk backs with the cast and creative team.

The Acting Company will tour, Christina Anderson’s Play On Shakespeare “translation” of THE COMEDY OF ERRORS. We will bring the show, workshops, in-school residencies, and pre- and post-show discussions to school communities including West Palm Beach, FL; Iowa City, IA; Asheville, NC; Jicarilla and Albuquerque, NM; Stony Brook, NY; Fairfax, VA; St. Johnsbury, VT; and Charleston, SC.

More than 2,800 young patrons will attend daytime student matinees of ROMEO AND JULIET and participate in guided classroom activities designed to help them explore the show’s language, historical context, and production elements. Hartford Stage serves middle and high school students from schools (more than half Title I) across the Hartford area and surrounding region, including NY and MA.

ISF's Shakespearience takes the plays of Shakespeare directly into Junior/Senior High schools all over the State of Idaho. The actors follow up the performance with a Question and Answer session with the student audience. The teachers and students also have access to a study guide, produced by the Director of Education. A separate breakout workshop is also available to be booked by the schools.

The TSF Roadshow brings abridged productions of Shakespeare into schools and rural communities throughout Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas. For the 2023-24 school year, the TSF Roadshow will be producing Hamlet for an anticipated 7,000 students.

Lantern Theater Company will provide in-class residencies to high school students at our partner schools in Philadelphia on AMERICAN MOOR by Keith Hamilton Cobb and its connection to OTHELLO by William Shakespeare. We will also provide free tickets for these school groups to attend a student matinee performance of AMERICAN MOOR at Lantern Theater Company scheduled from 11/7/24 - 12/8/24.

Marin Shakespeare Company will provide a free, 1-hour, bilingual adaptation of MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. In this romantic comedy, the men will mainly speak Spanish and the women English, adding a new layer to Shakespeare's comedy. Student groups may also receive free transportation and pre- and post-show classroom visits from actors. Our region has a high number of Spanish-speaking students.