Tennessee Shakespeare Company http://tnshakespeare.org
At Tennessee Shakespeare Company, we genuinely believe that Shakespeare is for everyone. We actively seek opportunities to serve new communities and geographies in Shelby County, the Mid- South, and Tennessee. We offer touring productions, playshops, and residencies that serve tens of thousands of students annually. We produce the Free Shout-Out Shakespeare Series each year, touring a free performance of a Shakespeare play in notable public spaces in Shelby County and beyond. Our innovative Romeo and Juliet Project now serves over one-half of Shelby County’s ninth-grade public school classrooms, promoting rehearsed alternatives to violence and supporting higher Language Arts grades.
Information about 2022-23 Student Matinees can be found here: https://tnshakespeare.org/education/student-matinees/
Contact Cara McHugh Geissler at caramchugh@tnshakespeare.org
Artist Work Samples
Sample Programs Offered
Program Type: Arts Appreciation
Program Description:
Shakespeare wrote for the stage with the spoken word galloping in his head, his characters living, breathing, and moving in his imagination. Teaching students that these are plays, intended to be played by players and heard by an audience, will catapult their Shakespeare experience off the page and inspire them to explore Shakespeare from the player’s point of view, experiencing the plays from the inside out.
During this playshop, students will:
• Work collaboratively;
• Actively engage their minds, bodies, and hearts in a fully integrated learning experience;
• Discover commonalities between Shakespeare’s characters and themselves;
• Hear and speak classical text from multiple Shakespeare plays;
• Gain a visceral understanding of iambic pentameter, how its rhythm relates to the human body, and how Shakespeare used its structure to create emphasis, clarify meaning, and convey powerful emotions.
Lesson Plan Example: Download File
Program Type: Arts Curriculum
Program Description:
During this multi-day residency, students actively experience the story and circumstances of Romeo and Juliet. TSC teaching artists move Shakespeare’s story and language off the page and into the hearts, bodies, voices, and imaginations of your students. Students transform from quietly reading the play to actively speaking and physically embodying the story.
Over the course of these sessions, TSC brings you a playful and enlightening curriculum of progression that encourages students to learn on their feet. Your students will build a theatrical foundation of physical, vocal, textual, and player vocabulary, transforming them into an artistic community that appreciates and enjoys the exploration of classical literature.
Lesson Plan Example: Download File
Program Type: Arts Appreciation
Program Description:
Shakespeare was a playwright, who wrote plays, to be played by players in a playhouse. Play is the operative word. Students will experience classical literature as Shakespeare intended it: played for them by professional actors either in-person or virtually. Students also engage with the actors during an in-person or virtual post-show discussion, gaining a greater understanding of classical theatre and the professional world of acting.
Lesson Plan Example: Download File
