The Colorado Shakespeare Festival is taking its all-female, bilingual tour of The Taming of the Shrew to Colorado schools.
The Taming of the Shrew is the latest title in , which combines live performance and classroom workshops (using the latest bullying and violence prevention research)听to empower students to become 鈥渦pstanders鈥� vs.听鈥渂ystanders鈥� when they see bullying happen around them.
The tour, aimed at third- through 12th-graders, continues through Nov. 4. It will be staged at more than 30 schools and reach听about 6,000 students.
鈥淭his project sparks conversations about empathy,鈥� says CSF Director of Outreach Amanda Giguere. 鈥淲hen students see a Shakespeare play that incorporates Spanish-speaking characters, performed by a diverse all-female cast, their expectations are disrupted听and they鈥檙e able to connect to the story in a fresh, meaningful way.鈥�
Each school visit includes a 50-minute performance of an abridged Shakespeare play and classroom workshops after the performance, led by CSF Teaching Artists. The workshops are developed in consultation with the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence and Safe2Tell, an anonymous tip line program for young people,听and they use theater听and role-playing techniques to help students brainstorm and rehearse creative solutions to the mistreatment they see around them using the play and its characters as a template.
Since 2011, the project has mounted abridged productions of Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest and The Taming of the Shrew for more than 72,000 Colorado students.
Now in its sixth year, Shakespeare & Violence Prevention is a collaboration between the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, a professional theater company based at CU Boulder; the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, a division of CU Boulder鈥檚 Institute of Behavioral Science; Safe2Tell; and the Department of Theatre & Dance at CU Boulder. The anti-violence school tour is funded in part by a CU Boulder Outreach Award, the Boulder Arts Commission, the CU Boulder College of Arts and Sciences, White Wave Foods and Haynes and Boone LLC.
鈥淲e are proud of the way this production reflects the diversity of the schools we visit and expands a student鈥檚 understanding of Shakespeare,鈥� Giguere said.
