Heart of America Shakespeare Festival Education Programs

3732 Main Street | Kansas City, MO 64111 (816) 531-7728 | www.kcshakes.org

HASF offers more than 100 education programs each year.

Year-Round Education Programs

• Shakespeare Conservatory: This two-hour conservatory class is for teens ages 12-18 and focuses on scene and monologue work to prepare these young people for high school and professional auditions, including auditions for Team Shakespeare.

• Team Shakespeare: A teen theatre troupe made up of Conservatory-class graduates. Team students come from all over the metro area and perform at many festivals and events throughout the city. Team Shakespeare also presents a yearly Winter Showcase and an extended run of a Shakespeare classic in the spring.

• NEW! Shakespeare’s Heartbeat for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): Workshop using the Hunter Heartbeat Method and Shakespeare’s plays to help children with ASD enhance their social skills. For the past 20 years, the Hunter Heartbeat Method has used the rhythm of iambic pentameter in Shakespeare’s plays to help children with ASD enhance social skills. In addition to our roster of ongoing classes, we are working to expand our programming to more fully fulfill our mission.

• ESU Shakespeare Competition: In collaboration with the local chapter of the English Speaking Union, the Festival will partner in presenting this longstanding competition among metro area high school students. High school students participate in this curriculum-based program designed to help them develop their communication skills and appreciation of language and literature, through the study, interpretation and performance of Shakespeare's monologues and sonnets. In addition to sponsoring a homeschool team every year, the Festival will help produce the competition, offer camp scholarships to the winners, and provide judges.

• Poster and Sonnet Contest: This competition extends HASF's reach throughout the year and into the community by accepting submissions from elementary, middle and high school students of original sonnets and visual interpretations inspired by Shakespeare's text. The contest is open to all Missouri and Kansas students. The Sonnet Competition is also open to adults from across the country. HASF offers two in-school programs to facilitate greater participation; Sonnet ShakeUP and Poster Prep workshops send teaching artists into schools to prepare students and teachers for the contest.

• In-school workshops: As part of Young Audiences' Arts Partners Roster, the Festival has developed a range of in-school workshops for students in grades K-12, including: Bard Basics (grades K-12); Hamlet: The Play’s the Thing! (grades 4-12); Romeo and Juliet: Fortune's Fools (grades 3-9); Julius Caesar: The Art of Persuasion (grades 7-12); En Garde Bard! Stage Combat (grades 6-12); and Shakespeare Off the Cuff: The Art of Improvisation (grades 4-12).

• Shakespeare Alive!: This workshop offers a more in-depth look at Shakespeare and is customized around individual schools/teacher curriculum. Residencies may last from 2 days to 6 weeks, depending on the needs of the school.

• NEW! KCMO Public School & HASF Partnership: The Festival is establishing a partnership with Kansas City Missouri Public Schools. Our vision is to bring Shakespeare to more educational institutions within the KCMO Public School system and work collaboratively with schools and teachers as an added value. Our educational programming will engage children, families, and schools, promoting and supporting academics and literature in all communities including those who are underserved. Our long-term strategy aims to provide not only a toolkit for success, but deep meaningful relationships that guide youth in their pathway to a bright future.

Programs for Lifelong Learners HASF’s adult education and outreach programs provide programs that deepen their appreciation for Shakespeare, and enrich their experience of the Festival production.

• Adult Acting Classes: The Festival will continue to broaden its reach to include the adult community by offering a series of acting classes for adult actors of all ages and skill levels. The classes are Shakespeare-intensive, with a focus on text analysis, audition, monologue, and scene study.

• Show Talk: A nightly presentation given in Southmoreland Park prior to the Festival performance, Show Talk reaches hundreds of people attending the Festival. The presentations are made by Dr. Felicia Londré, Curator's Professor of Theatre at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and Co-Founder of the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival; and by Phillip blue owl Hoosier, a local arts educator and playwright.

• Speaker Series: In conjunction with SPARK (Senior Peers Actively Renewing Knowledge) and the Kansas City Public Library, a speaker's series focused on our summer production will be offered in the spring and early summer free to the public. A Director's Briefing and Behind the Scenes discussion given by the Executive Artistic Director, Sidonie Garrett, and members of the Festival's design team will be part of the four-part series.

Summer Education Programs

• Camp Shakespeare: Our signature education program, Camp Shakespeare will serve more than 250 students in six different camps with a geographical diversity (Brookside, Independence, Kansas City, MO, Lee's Summit, and Overland Park). The camps are open to youth ages 8-13, giving students a two-week performance-based curriculum. This includes Shakespearean history, period movement, performance and acting techniques. Camp Shakespeare students then participate in abbreviated productions of HASF's summer play held on the Southmoreland Park stage.

• Shakespeare Unlimited: This is an advanced camp for students who have previously participated in Camp Shakespeare. The camp offers returning campers an expanded curriculum.

• Shakespeare Exploration: An advanced opportunity for experienced campers ages 14-18 with a conservatory-styled 3-week workshop that includes in-depth acting work highlighting vocal, physical, and acting techniques useful in performing Shakespeare, culminating in a performance on our Festival stage. Shakespeare Exploration is presented on the campus of University of Missouri-Kansas City.

• Will's Players: A one-week, half-day camp designed for our youngest Shakespeareans. It’s perfect for kids who are brand new to the Bard. Will’s Players will explore the life and times of Shakespeare and the basics of theatre, along with fun crafts, games, and improvisations. During the final class, students have the opportunity to share their work with family and friends.

• Shakespeare Alive!: Offers students a unique perspective on Shakespeare through the use of contemporary music styles, pop culture, spoken word poetry and writing. Camp culminates in a unique performance created by the students with the guidance of our professional Teaching Artists.

• Internship and Apprentice Program: HASF annually provides 15-25 young people (ages 16-23) with on-site, hands-on production, administration, and arts education experience under the supervision of experienced professionals. In addition to the work experience, interns receive classes throughout the summer taught by the design and production staff of the Festival, including the Executive Artistic Director. The Festival is also beginning to offer semester internships in administration, education, and marketing. For the internship/apprentice program, the goal is to nurture the next generation of theater artists by giving young people a real-world, hands-on experience in the professional theater that includes production, education, and management.

• Shakespeare Parody: Presented nightly in the park prior to the performance, the Parody offers Team Shakespeare students an advanced performance opportunity. The script is written by the teens with the guidance of teaching artists and presented in an improvisational style.