Expanded youth programming a success at Shakespeare & Company10:22AM / Thursday, October 08, 2009
LENOX, Mass. - The numbers are in, and Shakespeare & Company’s newly expanded Riotous Youth programs served an unprecedented number of young people ages 7 to 15, during special Spring Break sessions as well as all ten of its two-week sessions held this summer.
As S&Co.’s award-winning Education Program swings into high gear on its 21st annual Fall Festival of Shakespeare, it takes a moment to look back at a remarkable response from the community to its expanded summer offerings. This summer Riotous Youth expanded to ten sessions serving 240 children, from its already formidable six sessions the previous year, which served a total of 160 children.
This marks a full 50% increase from what was already S&Co.’s most popular summer Educational offering. The expansion of sessions was effected in response to the strong response shown toward the program over its first ten years. In order to accommodate this 50% increase of participating children, S&Co. expanded from four teachers and two interns in ’08 to six teachers and three interns this year. For registration details and more information on S&Co.’s youth programs, please contact Jenna Ware, Associate Director of Education, at (413) 637-1199 ext. 172.
The expansion of sessions was made possible in part by a generous grant of $2,000 from Berkshire Bank, from its new Cultural Enrichment Program, which was launched earlier this year as part of the Bank’ $50 million stimulus investment in Berkshire County. The $ 1million Cultural Enrichment Program was designed to provide more cultural experiences to children who might otherwise not have that opportunity, especially due to funding cutbacks in the schools. “Berkshire Bank’s generosity made it possible for us to offer partial scholarships to a number of Berkshire County children to participate in Riotous Youth,” Associate Director of Education Jenna Ware says.
It was also made possible by the opening of the rehearsal studios and facilities in S&Co.’s new Production and Performing Arts (PaPA) Center, including the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre. The PaPA Center is the centerpiece of S&Co.’s ongoing Capital Campaign. Riotous Youth participants frequently used rehearsal spaces that would otherwise had been in use by the Company’s professional actors if the new facilities were not available.
Riotous Youth is a two-week program, for children starting at age 7, designed to introduce young actors to Shakespeare through a series of fun and creative workshops and exercises involving voice, movement and acting. Participants create a performance piece based on scenes from a play, which they share with family, friends and S&Co. members at the outdoor, tented Rose Footprint Theatre. All levels of experience are welcome. Riotous Youth Company is a more advanced taste of actor training for High School students who have participated in Riotous Youth at least once, or have equivalent experience in other S&Co. Education programs. This year’s participants chose among sessions focusing on Romeo and Juliet, The Comedy of Errors, and Twelfth Night.
“Riotous Youth has always garnered a tremendous response,” says Ware. “We typically have a waiting list by late April, and in past years we have had to turn away many children who wanted to participate. This was particularly tough on children who had participated in past years and were looking forward to rekindling their summer friendships, and their relationships with the faculty, many of which have been here with us for years. Nevertheless, you’re always cautious when it comes to such a dramatic expansion of programming. So it was incredibly gratifying to see such an amazing response to the added sessions.”
This year’s Riotous Youth program was directed by Jennie Jadow. The highly talented corps of instructors included Paul D’Agnostino, Kaitlin Henderson, Kelley Johnston and Josh McCabe, Josephine Wilson in addition to Jadow—most of whom are members of S&Co.’s professional acting Company as well as Education artists trained in S&Co.’s highly distinctive techniques; most performed this summer in Toad of Toad Hall at the Rose Footprint Theatre. They were joined by interns Adam Stoner, Annie Considine, and Danny Cotes-Finke, all veterans of S&Co.’s Education programs.
There is plenty on the horizon for the Education program during the fall and winter months, in addition to its centerpiece program, the Fall Festival of Shakespeare. S&Co. expects to offer a third year of special acting classes for youths looking to take the next step in their training. Additionally, after two packed performances at the Bernstein Theatre last spring (followed by all-ages, hands-on workshops based on Romeo and Juliet), the annual touring production of Shakespeare and the Language That Shaped A World will play three times (March 27, April 13 and April 17) in the Bernstein Theatre, each time followed by a workshop based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Shakespeare & Company’s Education Program is focused on bringing Shakespeare alive and into the lives of as many students and teachers as possible, through the active exploration and performance of Shakespeare’s plays.
Shakespeare & Company has one of the most extensive arts-in-education programs in the northeast, reaching more than 50,000 students and teachers each year with innovative, socially responsive, and educationally challenging performances, workshops, and residencies.
In addition to the prestigious 2006 Coming Up Taller award, the Education Program has also received the 2005 Commonwealth Award, Massachusetts’ highest honor for excellence in the arts, sciences and the humanities. The Education Program is identified by the Arts Education Partnership, the GE Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, and the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities as a Champion of Change, and is recognized as an innovative leader in the field of integrating the arts into education. Since the program was founded in 1978, nearly one million elementary, middle, and high school students have participated. |
