OSF Receives $25,000 Shakespeare in American Communities Grant

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) is one of 40 nonprofit, professional theatre companies chosen to participate in the 2016-17 Shakespeare in American Communities program. OSF will receive a $25,000 grant award from Arts Midwest, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, in support of efforts to expose underserved students and teachers to the works of William Shakespeare.

Shakespeare in American Communities has contributed to OSF's education efforts for 12 years. OSF will use this latest award to help students and teachers in underserved communities in Oregon and California access to 294 performances of five Shakespeare plays in 2016 and 2017-Twelfth Night, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Henry IV, Part One and Henry IV, Part Two-plus related classroom curricula and actor workshops, post-show discussions, tours, Prologues and teacher training classes.

"It is a joy and an honor to introduce students to the plays of William Shakespeare," said Joan Langley, OSF Education Director. "The Shakespeare in American Communities grant allows us to keep fees low and offer scholarships and complimentary tickets to students and teachers in communities who would not otherwise be able to attend plays and education activities at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival."

Participants from 44 high schools and five middle/elementary schools (approximately 900 students) will benefit from the grant through the following core initiatives: the Ashland Schools Project, which serves the local high school in OSF's hometown of Ashland; the Bowmer Project for Student Playgoers, serving southern Oregon and northern California schools within a day trip of OSF; and School Visit Partnerships, serving schools as far as 400 miles away. The SAC grant also supports professional development and teacher training programs, including Shakespeare in the Classroom and Inside Shakespeare, which both train teachers in a theatre-based approach to teaching Shakespeare. The OSF Teachers First! catalog provides information about the plays in each season and education opportunities available at OSF. Teachers are also supplied with study guides, pre-show Prologues and post-show discussions which all help to maximize their students' visit.

In this 400th anniversary year of Shakespeare's death, both the Shakespeare in American Communities program and Shakespeare's work continue to be relevant. "Each year, the theater companies we support present Shakespeare's plays to a new group of middle and high schoolers across the country," said Susan Chandler, Arts Midwest's vice president. "And those students discover-through the artistry of these 40 outstanding theater companies-that Shakespeare wrote about the joy of young love, the perils of war, and the inequity of racial injustice. We are grateful that the National Endowment for the Arts' partnership with us opens students' eyes to Shakespeare and all the meaningful issues he wrote about that continue to resonate today."

Since the program's inception in 2003, Shakespeare in American Communities has introduced middle and high school students to the power of live theater and the masterpieces of William Shakespeare, benefiting more than 2.8 million individuals, including 2.3 million students, with live performances and educational activities.

Founded by Angus Bowmer in 1935 and winner of a 1983 Tony Award for outstanding achievement in regional theatre, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival presents an eight-month season of 11 plays that include works by Shakespeare as well as a mix of classics, musicals, and new works. The Festival draws attendance of more than 400,000 to almost 800 performances every year and employs approximately 575 theatre professionals. In 2008, OSF launched American Revolutions: the United States History Cycle, a 10-year cycle of commissioning new plays that has already resulted in several OSF commissions finding success nationwide.

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