300 Students Unleash Their Boundless Creativity with the Bard

This month, Chicago Shakespeare Theater was filled to capacity with students from high schools across the city and the metro area, performing, cheering, dancing and geeking out-over Shakespeare. The Battle of the Bard "Final Bout" marked the culmination of countless hours of rehearsal time, Saturday workshops and preliminary bouts for this region-wide high school Shakespeare slam.

As a key component of Shakespeare 400 Chicago-our city's yearlong celebration honoring four centuries of the playwright's legacy-Chicago Shakespeare Theater in partnership with Chicago Youth Shakespeare created a program that this fall reached more than 300 students and teacher-coaches. Over 40 schools participated, from the Belmont-Cragin neighborhood on the city's northwest side to the South Chicago neighborhood, and from Aurora to Waukegan in the suburbs.

Battle of the Bard teams prepare two pieces: first, a scene from any of Shakespeare's plays, followed by an original devised work that draws its script exclusively from the Bard's words, imaginatively spotlighting a play, theme or contemporary issue that is most relevant to the students. Nine teams advanced to the Finals-performing to a theater filled with their Battle of the Bard peers, here to support the other students' teams they had come to know through the past weeks of workshops and qualifying rounds.

The rock concert atmosphere of the night was fueled by DJ "Iam" Patrick Budde and emcees Sarah Ruggles and Donovan Diaz, but was ignited by the exuberance of the students, reveling in the words of Shakespeare and the boundless creativity on our stage that evening-giving all who were present that night so much to be thankful for in this holiday season.