CST Joins Chicago Public Schools to Promote Literacy With CPS Shakespeare!

Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) announced today a partnership with Chicago Public Schools (CPS), CPS Shakespeare!, in which an ensemble of 35 students and teachers from ten CPS high schools will stage an adaptation of William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. The ensemble embarks on an intensive five-week rehearsal process beginning on Saturday, Oct. 1, led by a team of theater professionals that includes text coaches and a fight choreographer. CPS Shakespeare! is a central component of CST's Team Shakespeare arts-in-education program, which has served over 1 million students and teachers since its inception in 1991. Performances of CPS Shakespeare! The Taming of the Shrew, adapted and directed by Kirsten Kelly, will be presented in Chicago Shakespeare Theater's Courtyard Theater on Friday, November 4 at 4:30 p.m. and Saturday, November 5 at 10:30 a.m.

Ten high schools from across the Chicago Public School system, represented by 35 students and teachers, will collaborate on this year's CPS Shakespeare! production: Alcott High School for the Humanities, Al Raby High School, Curie Metropolitan High School, Gage Park High School, Mather High School, Multicultural Academy of Scholarship, Phillips Academy High School, Prosser Career Academy High School, Steinmetz Academic Centre and Taft High School.

"In a literate society, language gives us power," says CST Director of Education and Communications Marilyn Halperin. "Our work with CPS teachers and students is essential. For students who participate in CPS Shakespeare!, taking on Shakespeare's language as their own through the rehearsal process and performance is an act of personal empowerment-both cognitively and emotionally. We are grateful for the support of Eric's Tazmanian Angel Fund, which makes our work in CPS Shakespeare! possible."

Ensuring the future of CPS Shakespeare!, Eric's Tazmanian Angel Fund has made a generous commitment to support Chicago Shakespeare's arts-in-education program. This fund will also provide for the Eric Curtis Skowronski Spirit Award, which provides a monetary gift to the school of each participating teacher for their support of the arts, literature or library programs.

Director and Adaptor Kirsten Kelly, who developed the CPS Shakespeare! program with Halperin, returns to CST for her sixth year. An award-winning documentary film and theater director, Kelly has directed past CPS Shakespeare! productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet. She recently directed the DC premiere of The Clockmaker and Daniel Talbott's production of Slipping at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. She is the Associate Artistic Director of Roots & Branches Theater Company, a multi-generational theater company in New York.

Other credits include: the Midwest premiere of Boston Marriage (After Dark Award for Best Director); Boy Meets Girl for Theatre Alliance (Helen Hayes Award nomination for Best Direction); and Savage Love/Tongues with the Julliard Percussion Ensemble at Lincoln Center. Kirsten is currently adapting the Newbery Award-winning young adult novel The Wednesday Wars for the stage and directed a workshop of the project in January 2011. She is also directing a new feature documentary on youth homelessness, which recently won a Sundance Development Grant.

Joining Kelly as assistant director is Sandra Shimon, a Prosser Career Academy teacher who has participated in the program for the past three years. The creative team for CPS Shakespeare! Taming of the Shrew also includes Costume Designer Cathy Tantillo, Lighting Designer Joel Moritz, Sound Designer James Savage, Wig and Makeup Designer Melissa Veal, Fight Choreographer Tyler Rich and Properties Master Chelsea Meyers.

CPS Shakespeare! The Taming of the Shrew runs Friday, November 4 at 4:30 p.m. and Saturday, November 5 at 10:30 a.m. in CST's Courtyard Theater. Each performance is followed by a 30-minute post-show discussion with the entire ensemble, led by CST Director of Education and Communications Marilyn Halperin. Tickets are $5 and may be purchased beginning on Monday, Oct. 3, by calling Chicago Shakespeare Theater's Box Office at 312.595.5600 or visiting www.chicagoshakes.com/cpsshakespeare.