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The Education Program
We are here to serve and play: to be YOUR Shakespeare Company, because you deserve one, because Shakespeare is for everyone, regardless of your age, gender, color, knowledge, home life, grades, or aspirations. Shakespeare is all questions. And there are no wrong answers. We promise to be a welcoming place for you to meet and explore these great plays with players and audiences who care about you and this community.
The Mission
To move the arts closer to the center of every child's learning experience.
We are called:
- To bring as many children as possible to experience live Shakespeare.
- To revive our sense of play, discovery, and community with classical stories that demand retelling and in-depth exploration by learners of every age.
- To offer residencies and workshops for classrooms statewide.
- To offer one-third of our professionally produced performances of Shakespeare as specially priced student matinee events.
- To bring professional actors into the educational setting and introduce playing into the study of Shakespeare, lifting powerful words and characters from the page and into the souls of children.
- To offer intensive Shakespeare Player Training and fun Shakespeare World-of-the-Play immersion opportunities for your students in the summer.
- To support and train teachers to activate our youth with playing Shakespeare.
The Promise:
"We are going to arm children with Shakespeare's canon in the Renaissance of their lives. They will learn better, listen more intently, care for one another, create compassion, enjoy one anothers' successes, support one anothers' failures, and articulate how they feel. Their grades will get better, they will stay in school longer, and they will be far less likely to become violent and poverty-stricken. These are studied and published facts the Mid-South can take advantage of, and at the national level they are the direct results of the arts moving closer to the center of the learning experience."
- Founder and Producing Artistic Director, Dan McCleary
We will be the Mid-South's Shakespeare Educational resource center: a center for inquiry, for play, and for empowerment. Together, we will keep our promise and make our dream come true.
The Programs
Generously underwritten by the City of Germantown's Civic Support Grant and TSC's Barbara B. Apperson Angel Fund.
"Our most Elizabethan, visceral audiences were those with children in them. When we spoke with them after the performances and in the classrooms, in many cases, their understanding and articulation surpassed the expectations of their teachers, their parents, and themselves. We have delighted in their discoveries, and we can't wait for more with our production of Julius Caesar in the spring."
- Founder and Producing Artistic Director, Dan McCleary
Student Matinees
During A Midsummer Night's Dream and Julius Caesar, TSC presented 15 student matinees. These performances were filled to capacity, serving 3,272 Shelby County students. Each show was followed by a 10-minute Question and Answer session. Student audiences ranged from 3rd -12th grade, comprised of students from English classes, Drama classes, IB, and Special Education.
Participating high schools included Germantown, Houston, MUS, Cordova, Fayette Academy, Christ the King, Hutchison, Middle-College, Lausanne, St. Mary's, Collierville, Bolton, FACS, Millington, Overton, Northside, The Soulsville Charter, and UM Campus School. Participating elementary/middle schools included Grahamwood, Snowden, Sherwood, and many homeschoolers.
For each productions, a 90-page comprehensive, interactive study guide was created and distributed to 3,320 students and teachers throughout Shelby and Fayette Counties in preparation of their student matinee experience. The guide includes a special section, "Just for Educators," which empowers educators to lead their students in Elizabethan play. Students receive the Study Guides in cost-effective CD format.
Free Will Thursday Kids Night
The Free Will Thursday Kids Nights admitted 335 children aged 17 and younger for free to Thursday night shows of both productions - twice as many as TSC had originally projected.
Playshops
Playshops were led in each of the City-funded schools: Germantown Middle and High Schools, Houston Middle and High Schools, and Riverdale Elementary. TSC teaching artists led 51 playshops serving 1,347 students from 3rd-12th grades, including an after-school visual arts club for 6th-8th grades, a Special Education 6th grade class, Freshman IB English classes, and advanced Drama.
Prelude Scenes
A collection of 21 Germantown High School students had over 80 hours of individual and team scene teaching/coaching for A Midsummer Night's Dream and Julius Caesar Prelude Scenes, where students performed for audiences prior to the shows.
"I was surprised how fun this experience was; I learned so many things about myself. I learned about my strengths and how to conquer my weaknesses, and I am so grateful for this wonderful opportunity. I would like to extend my thanks to everyone who made this life changing experience possible for me, and many other young students."
-Somer Greene, student, Hutchison School
TSC's Pre-Show Experience
Many schools took advantage of TSC's pre-show offering to send an actor to a class for an interactive introduction to the play. During A Midsummer Night's Dream and Julius Ceasar, 13 actors visited 24 area classrooms to speak to and play with 630 students.
Pilot Residency with St. Mary's School
TSC's pilot Residency with St. Mary's School in Memphis was a resounding success. The entire upper school of 220 students had four in-depth sessions with TSC teaching artists. The humanities-based Residency focused on A Midsummer Night's Dream and included study and play with the works of visual artist Marc Chagall, psychoanalyst Dr. Carl Jung, composer Bela Bartok, mythologist Joseph Campbell, Elizabethan dance, stage combat, and imagination for the stage.
"The students were truly inspired, and the love of the Great Bard's words has only deepened more throughout our hallowed halls. You are a true gift to our city and the young minds that you are embracing."
-Leigh Mansberg, teacher, St. Mary's Episcopal School
St. Mary’s Episcopal School Students “Fight like Amazons” during
TSC’s Pilot Residency Program
Training Programs
During the summer of 2010, TSC piloted three original summer training programs, each culminating in a public sharing of the discoveries that excited the participants.
Our first two camps took place at the Hutchison school, attended by students grades 5 -12. “The Plays the Thing” was a weeklong exploration of the world of Macbeth. Participants dove headfirst into Shakespeare’s world and his text, and learned the value of play from TSC professionals.
“Young Players Training Institute”, a fun, intense, and demanding two-week experience, allowed players to discover their personal ownership of Shakespeare’s text while continuing to develop essential acting techniques. Players explored 13 plays from Shakespeare’s canon while training and rehearsing like TSC actors.
Our third program, TSC’s inaugural “Young Company,” took place at St. George’s Episcopal Church. For serious actors 18-24, this two-week intensive immersed players in TSC’s classical playing of Shakespeare. TSC actor-teachers led players through a rigorous array of sessions in Text Exploration, Soliloquy, Scene Play, Elizabethan Dance and Movement, Voice Work, and Stage Combat, while focusing on the aesthetic of play and the exploration of what it means to be a human being.
TSC’s Players in Education
Stephanie Shine, Education Director
Stephanie is in her 12th season as Artistic Director of Seattle Shakespeare Company where she has directed 12th Night, Richard III, Henry IV, All's Well that Ends Well, The Comedy of Errors, Swansong by Patrick Page, Cyrano de Bergerac, the lauded all-male Taming of the Shrew, Measure For Measure, Richard II, Wild Oats, Hamlet, Henry V, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Her other directorial credits include, The Taming of the Shrew and The Comedy of Errors for Colorado Shakespeare Festival, I Am of Ireland (which she also conceived and adapted), and A Christmas Memory for Book-It Repertory Theatre, Love's Labors Lost for Cornish College of the Arts, Romeo and Juliet for Seattle University and When the Messenger is Hot for Theater Schmeater. Stephanie directed the award-winning one-woman Marilyn Monroe biopic, Marilyn: Forever Blonde, which has toured extensively both nationally and internationally including a six-week run in London's West. A well-known actress in the Northwest, she has performed for the Seattle Repertory Theatre, ACT, The Empty Space, and Seattle Children's Theatre, as well as several theatres across the nation including both the Oregon and New Jersey Shakespeare Festivals. Her Shakespearean roles include Juliet, Rosalind, Lady Macbeth, Beatrice, Regan, Feste, Kate, Bianca, Dionyza, The Princess of France, Hero, and Perdita. Stephanie is a graduate of the University of Washington's Professional Actor Training Program and the very proud mother of Conor and Cahilan Shine. Stephanie serves on the advisory board of the University of Washington's School of Drama and is adjunct faculty for the Seattle Film Institute where she teaches Directing the Actor.
Brittany Morgan, Education Associate, Artist-Manager
Brittany became a founding company member of Tennessee Shakespeare Company by playing Phebe in TSC's inaugural production of As You Like It. This season with TSC, she played in A Midsummer Night's Dream (Hermia) and Julius Caesar (Portia, Decius Brutus), and began educating the youths of Memphis on playing Shakespeare. Brittany received her B.F.A. from Illinois Wesleyan University along with the British American Drama Academy. She has taken the stage in London (Opal Theatre), Chicago (First Folio Theatre), Orlando (Orlando Shakespeare Theatre; Orlando Repertory Theatre; stunt shows at Universal Studios), and Massachusetts (Shakespeare & Company; Riggs Theatre). Her favorite roles include Cordelia in King Lear, Juliet/Desdemona/Beatrice/Hermia in Wild and Whirling Words, Diana in All's Well That Ends Well, Ariel in The Tempest, Iphigenia in IPH..., Peaseblossom in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Louisson in The Imaginary Invalid, Lucile in The Bourgeois Gentleman, Mayella in To Kill a Mockingbird, Ophelia in Hamletmachine. In addition to dance, Brittany is also SAFD-certified and trained in multiple weapons.
Slade Kyle, Resident Artist, Education Manager
Slade Kyle is a founding company member of Tennessee Shakespeare Company. TSC credits: As You Like It (Oliver), A Midsummer Nights Dream (Puck, Fight Director). Slade directed Germantown High School students in Prelude Scenes performed prior to each Julius Caesar performance. Memphis theatre: regional premier of Metamorphoses (University of Memphis); the 1st non-Equity production of tick,tick…BOOM! (Theatre 4 Theatre); Pandora’s Box (Zeus); Assassins (John Wilkes Booth); The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (El-Fayoumy), Parade (Gov. Jack Slayton), Much Ado About Nothing (Don John); Metamorphoses (Eros/Orpheus), The Writer’s Block (Cullen – originated), The Serpent (Cain), You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown (Snoopy) and Lucky Stiff (Harry). Other: SEWA Professional Wrestler, (two-time Tag Team Champion, Light Heavyweight title holder, organization-wide choreographer). Slade received his BFA in Theatre Performance from the University of Memphis with concentrations in Physical Theatre and Theatre Pedagogy. Fight Directing credits include: Othello; Fences; Harry Potter’s World Exhibition Tour (American Library Association). Directing credits: Dear Edwina (New Day Children’s Theatre); The Imaginators (Delta Arts Council). Slade has been a regular Teaching-Artist at The Delta Arts Council, New Day Children’s Theatre, Theatre Memphis, and numerous other Mid-South theatres and schools.
Dan McCleary, Founding and Producing Artistic Director (click here for bio)
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