Section A

(10:30 am – 12 noon)

1. Stop Teaching Shakespeare

Join Kevin Coleman, Director of Education at Shakespeare & Company in Lennox, Massachusetts, in a stimulating workshop using the renowned rationale and strategies from Shakespeare & Company to bring Shakespeare alive for students in ways that are intellectually rigorous, emotionally authentic, personally meaningful… and fun!

2. “We will proceed no longer in this business…”

And yet they do! How do prophecy, ambition, love and revenge compel ostensibly good people to do very bad things? Explore the characters in Macbeth and what motivates them to do what they do. This workshop integrates samples from the rich multi-media materials in Oxford’s new “Shakespeare Online” series – including many production photographs from the Stratford Shakespeare Festival Archives – to support a personal, meaningful and active learning experience for the diverse range of students in our high school classrooms. Led by Kathleen Gould Lundy.

3. Creating Original Ensemble Productions

This workshop, led by Stephen DiMenna, presents strategies and activities for creating original ensemble-written collage plays. Using various writing prompts and staging devices, teachers explore how to inspire and nurture the original voices of their students and how to create original material for an ensemble play.

4. The Grapes of Wrath

This practical workshop creatively explores the themes and issues in The Grapes of Wrath, paying particular attention to how we might engage students emotionally and intellectually in the socio-historical context of the novel and play but also explore the contemporary resonances. Using drama and theory building conventions we will also experience an ensemble-based learning environment. Led by Jonothan Neelands.[bio]

5. Classics Renewed

The Grapes of Wrath was written in 1939 yet is still relevant today, and Shakespeare’s work continues to be staged 400 years after it was written. Join a scholar and a panel of actors for a discussion on how theatre can renew classics and keep them fresh for modern audiences.

Section B

(1:00 pm – 4:15 pm)

1. Stop Teaching Shakespeare

– continued from morning session.

6. Should you love a boy who kills?

… And other provocative questions. Work in and through drama to explore the themes and relationships in Romeo and Juliet. This workshop integrates samples from the rich source of multi-media materials in Oxford’s new “Shakespeare Online” series – including many production photographs from the Stratford Shakespeare Festival – to support a personal, active and meaningful learning experience for the diverse range of students in our high school classrooms. Led by Kathleen Gould Lundy.

7. Playwriting in the Classroom

This is a practical hands-on workshop for teachers who want to use playwriting as a teaching tool in the classroom. Learn the basics of dramatic writing and concrete methods for teaching dramatic writing to students of all grade levels. You will learn activities designed to awaken and inspire your students’ imaginations and help them discover their voices as writers. Teaching techniques and applications to other curriculum are also covered. Led by Stephen DiMenna.

8. Hamlet

This extended workshop, led by Jonothan Neelands, explores in detail how rehearsal-room approaches to teaching Shakespeare might be applied to this most complex of plays. How can Hamlet be brought to life, engaged with intellectually and emotionally, and experienced as theatre by students? The workshop introduces a variety of dramatic conventions borrowed from the rehearsal room and from process drama to demonstrate how teaching a Shakespeare play can be structured for learning and pleasure.

9. Lifting the Words off the Page… Dramatically

This practical session, with a focus for elementary teachers, provides participants with strategies for working inside and outside a source through improvisation and interpretation. You will experience several drama conventions to promote communication, collaboration and comprehension skills with young people. Led by Larry Swartz.

Note: at the conclusion of your workshop (approx. 4:15 p.m.) you have free time to enjoy with colleagues. Why not plan to make dinner reservations? Please be sure to bring your play/drink tickets to the AVON Theatre for the 8 p.m. show. Join us afterwards for the Reception.