Shakespeare Theatre of NJ Offers Shakespeare Institute

From July 14 through 19, teachers from points as far away as Hawaii, Greece and Finland, and as near as Somerset, New Jersey will convene at The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey for an intense and inspiring week of hands-on professional development. Led by The Shakespeare Theatre's acclaimed artists and educators, ShakeFest: Summer Shakespeare Institute for Teachers trains educators to use Shakespeare and the study of classic dramatic literature as powerful tools in the classroom. Participants learn to take their teaching of Shakespeare to a new level with text analysis and performance techniques designed to conquer "Shakes-fear" and help students master the Bard.  ShakeFest's active, performance-oriented approach is ideal for all grade levels, and applicable to all kinds of literature.  Enrollment is limited to ensure individualized attention. For more information or to register, call 973-408-3980 or e-mail jbgrant@ShakespeareNJ.org.

New Jersey participants in this acclaimed program will earn more than 50 hours towards the 100 Professional Development hours required by the State of New Jersey. Tuition is $500, including all workshops, master classes, and materials. The final day of program will be conducted by Susan Biondo-Hench, co-author and co-editor of the popular teaching series Shakespeare Set Free, focusing on assisting teachers in applying the lessons of ShakeFest to their classrooms.

Former ShakeFest participant Barbara Carr, an eighth-grade teacher honored in 2004 by Princeton University as one of four outstanding New Jersey teachers said, "In twelve years of teaching, this was the best professional development program I've ever seen."

Among the globally diverse teachers gathering at this year's ShakeFest will be Christa Bachmann-Nikolaides, an English teacher from The German School of Athens.  This is the second year the GSA, one of Greece's most prestigious private schools, has sent a representative to train at The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey.  Their first participant, Lutz Tegge, says of his participation in 2006, "I felt so privileged to have been able to experience this firework of ideas and creativity."  Upon returning to Athens and relaying his experiences, The German School of Athens invited Artistic Director Bonnie J. Monte and Associate Director of Education Jamie Brink-Grant to Athens to teach a 3-day "condensed" ShakeFest in April of this year for teachers from the German Schools of the Eastern Mediterranean located in Athens and Thessaloniki, Greece; Cairo, and Istanbul.  Using one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies, Macbeth, as their springboard, 10 teachers were led through an abbreviated version of the week-long ShakeFest curriculum.

 "It was an amazing, inspiring and eye-opening experience," said Monte. "Initially, we were a little concerned about how well our techniques would 'translate' to an audience of teachers of English as a Foreign Language. But the experience only served to reinforce the fact that performance (especially of Shakespeare) is a universal language. In the end, several of the teachers confessed to us that they had never enjoyed Shakespeare and had been dreading having to participate in our workshop, but that they had ultimately never enjoyed a development workshop more."

Extensive classroom practice has shown that when students get on their feet and "speak the speech," they make enormous gains in both enjoyment and understanding of the text.  By participating in ShakeFest, both elementary and secondary teachers can acquire a myriad of performance-based techniques to encourage active learning.  Even for teachers who have never participated in theatre before, ShakeFest shows how any language arts classroom can tackle the plays as they were meant to be—in performance.

The program alternates roundtable discussions and interactive "on-your-feet" workshops, providing teachers with crucial overviews and information, classroom activities and performance strategies for approaching Shakespeare with their students.

One of the highlights of this year's ShakeFest will be a workshop by educator Susan Biondo-Hench, co-author and co-editor of the popular teaching series, Shakespeare Set Free.  A veteran classroom educator, Biondo-Hench helped establish the Central Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival which recently celebrated its 20th year. She has presented performance-based Shakespeare teaching workshops at many National Council of Teachers of English conventions.  A participant in the first NEH-sponsored Folger Teaching Shakespeare Institute in 1984, she went on to be a Master Teacher at the 1998 institute and will return again for TSI 2008. In 2007, Biondo-Hench was awarded the first ever Shakespeare Steward Award, honoring outstanding contributions to the innovative teaching of Shakespeare in American classrooms, by the Folger Shakespeare Library.

For more information or to register, call 973-408-3980 or e-mail jbgrant@ShakespeareNJ.org.

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