The Public Theater Expands Shakespeare Initiative; A Midsummer Day’s Camp and Shakespeare Spring Break Launched This Spring

The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Andrew D. Hamingson) announced the launch this spring of two new Shakespeare Initiative programs, A Midsummer Day's Camp and Shakespeare Spring Break. Both programs are geared toward teens with an interest in Shakespeare and the classics and build on the success of the Shakespeare Initiative's pilot program last summer.

"The idea behind the Shakespeare Initiative is the same one that's always driven The Public Theater's work: to make Shakespeare accessible to the widest possible audience, and no segment of the audience is more vital to Shakespeare's future than young people," said Shakespeare Initiative Director Barry Edelstein. "These programs are designed to engage teenagers' hearts and imaginations, and, we hope, plant in them a lifelong love for this wonderful material."

A Midsummer Day's Camp is a day camp for New York City's aspiring classical actors. The camp runs weekdays August 2 - 13, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and concludes with a performance at The Public Theater on August 14.

Shakespeare Spring Break is a five-day intensive theater lab which will explore in depth the two Shakespearean masterpieces which will make up the 2010 Shakespeare in the Park season: The Merchant of Venice and The Winter's Tale. Shakespeare Spring Break runs March 29 through April 2 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The new programs are designed by arts-in-education specialists from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and other leading members of the field. Artists from The Public Theater and Shakespeare in the Park will visit both programs.

A Midsummer Day's Camp, for young people ages 13 to 18, is a conservatory-style actor-training program tailored specifically to teens. The intensive curriculum focuses on the challenges, rigors, and joys of performing Shakespeare's work and combines work on acting, voice, movement, games, text analysis, clowning, and stage combat. It offers teens a taste of the highest caliber training available in the American professional classical theater. Participation is by interview only. A limited number of full-tuition scholarships will be available to qualified campers.

A Midsummer Day's Camp shares the faculty of The Public's prestigious professional actor-training program, The Shakespeare Lab. Comprising teachers from the Juilliard School, NYU's Graduate Acting Program, the Yale School of Drama, and other major American conservatories; this faculty includes Janet Zarish, Lisa Benavides, J. Steven White, Robert Perillo, Barry Edelstein, Ian Hersey, and Nancy Lemenager.

Shakespeare Spring Break, for young people ages 13 to 17, is a performance-based initiative and an in-depth exploration of Shakespeare. It will include work in acting, movement, poetry, theater games, and textual analysis and will prepare participants to experience the summer Park season in a new and greatly enhanced way. Spring Break participants will be afforded a chance to see Shakespeare in the Park 2010.

THE PUBLIC THEATER (Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director; Andrew D. Hamingson, Executive Director) was founded by Joseph Papp in 1954 and is now one of the nation's preeminent cultural institutions, producing new plays, musicals, and productions of classics at its downtown and at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. The Public's mandate to create a theater for all New Yorkers continues to this day onstage and through extensive outreach and education programs. Each year, over 250,000 people attend Public Theater-related productions and events at six downtown stages, including Joe's Pub, and Shakespeare in the Park. The Public has won 42 Tony Awards, 149 Obies, 40 Drama Desk Awards and four Pulitzer Prizes. The Public has brought 52 shows to Broadway, including Sticks and Bones; That Championship Season; A Chorus Line; The Pirates of Penzance; The Tempest; Bring In ‘Da Noise, Bring In ‘Da Funk; On the Town; The Ride Down Mt. Morgan; Topdog/Underdog; Elaine Stritch at Liberty; Take Me Out; Caroline, or Change; Well; Passing Strange; and, most recently, the current Tony Award-winning revival of Hair. www.publictheater.org.

For more information on A Midsummer Day's Camp or Shakespeare Spring Break, please call (212) 539-8525, email ihersey@publictheater.org, or visit www.publictheater.org.

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