Atlanta Shakespeare Company
The Atlanta Shakespeare Company’s (ASC) mission is to make classic drama engaging for audiences of all ages and backgrounds—and a core part of that mission involves cultivating future theater audiences by engaging young people of all ages and backgrounds. To that end, the company views their arts education programs not as side projects, but rather, as a vital component of their mission. For the past 20 years, Director of Education and Training Laura Cole has developed ASC’s education programs. ASC now offers pre-K through post-baccalaureate education programs that reach about 30,000 students every year. ASC’s extensive education programs include in-school workshops (called Playshops) investigating a selected Shakespeare play, after-school programs, eight-week Residencies, summer camps for ages 4-15, and summer acting intensives for high school students. The ASC tour troupe, comprised of professional actors and educators, will travel up to five hours from metro Atlanta to present performances All ASC Teaching Artists are college-educated, professional actors who have undergone extensive training in our education programs. Many of our Teaching Artists are graduates of ASC’s apprentice program, a professional training program that includes extensive education training.
Social Media: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok
Languages Spoken: Teaching artists with Atlanta Shakespeare can teach in English and Spanish.
Arts Disciplines: Theatre/Drama
Core Content Curriculum Areas: Theatre/Drama, English/Language Arts
Specialized Content Areas: Arts Integration, STEAM, ELL (English Language Learners), Arts in Social Emotional Learning
Grade Levels: Pre-K, K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12, Adult Acting, Professional Actors
Special Populations: ELL (English Language Learners), At-Risk Students, Dyslexic Students, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Students, “BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) students”, “LGBTQI+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex) students”, Exceptional Learners (students with disabilities as well as those who are gifted and talented
Pre-Service Learning and Professional Development:Professional Development for K-12 Teachers, Professional Development for Teaching Artists, Post-Secondary professional actor training
Geographic Availability: Metro Atlanta, North Georgia, Middle Georgia, South Georgia, Southeast United States
Program Types:
School-based Classroom Workshop(s), School-based Assembly Program, School-based Residency Program
Community-based Assembly Program, Community-based Summer Program, Online Content for School Use
Online Content for Community Use, Hybrid Online and In-Person Content for Schools, homeschool workshops and performances at our theatre and at your facility
Program Fees:
Performance Tour to your school or facility:
https://www.shakespearetavern.com/education/tours/
Assembly price:
$895.00 for first performance with multi-performance and Title 1 discounts available. Travel fees applied for schools outside of a 50-mile radius from our location on Peachtree Street. Adding workshops to the tour package is also available.
In-house matinee student ticket prices are $16 and more information is at www.shakespearetavern.com or you can contact the box office at boxoffice@shakespearetavern.com.
Workshops:
https://www.shakespearetavern.com/education/workshops/
Residencies:
https://www.shakespearetavern.com/education/residencies/
Access to Online Content:
Price varies by title and program. Please visit https://www.shakespearetavern.com/education/digital/
Hybrid Online and In-Person:
Prices vary by program. Please contact katigrace@shakespearetavern.com for more info.
Artistic Profile:
The Atlanta Shakespeare Company’s (ASC) mission is to make classic drama engaging for audiences of all ages and backgrounds—and a core part of that mission involves cultivating future theater audiences by engaging young people of all ages and backgrounds. To that end, the company views their arts education programs not as side projects, but rather, as a vital component of their mission. For the past fifteen years, Director of Education and Training Laura Cole has developed ASC’s education programs. ASC now offers pre-K through post-baccalaureate education programs that reach about 30,000 students every year. In the 2015-2016 season, ASC served 190 K-12 schools in 111 cities, including 128 public schools, 62 private schools, 16 home-school groups, and 12 colleges. ASC’s extensive education programs include in-school workshops (called Playshops) investigating a selected Shakespeare play, after-school programs, eight-week Residencies, summer camps for ages 4-15, and summer acting intensives for high school students. The ASC tour troupe, comprised of professional actors and educators, will travel up to five hours from metro Atlanta to present performances, including a shortened version of “Romeo and Juliet,” a play about Greek mythology, a play about Shakespeare’s career, and a play about Shakespeare and the Wild West, geared specifically for elementary students. All ASC Teaching Artists are college-educated, professional actors who have undergone extensive training with Laura Cole and Kati Grace Brown, Education Programs Producer. Many of their Teaching Artists are graduates of ASC’s apprentice program, a professional training program that includes extensive education training.
Teaching Experience:
All ASC Teaching Artists are seasoned professional actors and trained educators who have years of experience working at ASC and with theaters throughout the Southeast. The qualifications of their Education Department staff and tour troupe are indicative of the qualifications of all their Teaching
Artists. Laura Cole, Director of Education and Training, holds a B.S. in Communications and Acting from Northwestern University and has worked in professional theatre in Atlanta for 19 years. She has continued her specialized training in Shakespeare performance with Shakespeare & Company Artistic Director Tina Packer. Education Programs Producer Kati Grace Brown is a graduate of Barter
Conservatory and is an alumna of the ASC apprentice program. Kati Grace has directed numerous youth productions for students through both artist-in-residency initiatives and Summer Programs. Adam King, Elementary & Homeschool Programs Coordinator, holds a BFA in Acting from Webster University, and is a graduate of the 2013-14 ASC Apprentice Company, where he worked with the Education Department both as a Teaching Artist and as part of the touring show “Shakespeare: A Language that Shaped the World.” Amanda Lindsey, Teaching Artist, is a graduate of the University of West Georgia and the ASC apprentice program, after which she focused on teaching playshops and summer camps, and performing in ASC touring productions. The 2016-2017 tour troupe included Jilian Melko, B.F.A., The New School, NYC), who has performed all over the U.S. and Chris Hecke, M.F.A., University of Arkansas and B.A., North Greenville University, who has extensive experience with Synchronicity and South Carolina Children’s Theatre.
Sample Programs:
- Residency: A residency is an eight-week, language-based exploration of a Shakespeare play culminating in a full production that the students perform at their school and at the Shakespeare Tavern Playhouse.It focuses on the after-school activities of casting, rehearsing, and producing a play by William Shakespeare. Students in the project work with our trained Teaching Artists to learn about stage combat, stagecraft, warm-up technique, acting, dance and voice work, stage movement, costume, makeup, lighting, and props/set design and construction, backstage management, publicity and program/poster design, dramaturgy, scholarship and research skills. Participation in the Residency encourages students to build teamwork and time management skills, a sense of commitment and passion for a greater, creative good, greater clarity and confidence in self-expression, enhanced empathetic listening skills, self-esteem, and life-skills that can lead to future success in college and the greater world.Typical high school residencies involve 20-25 students, although past residencies have included additional or fewer students. During a typical residency, three to four Teaching Artists meet with students every day after school for eight weeks, usually in the high school auditorium or theater. We offer mini-residencies for elementary and middle school students, during which Teaching Artists meet with students two to three times a week for four to eight weeks. Residencies are available for private and public schools and for students of all ages.Fee structure varies depending on the school and the duration of the residency. For the past two years, our residency work has been recognized by Art Works awards from the National Endowment for the Arts to fund residencies at local Atlanta public schools, including Therrell High School, Booker T Washington High School, Mary Lin Elementary School, and Scott Elementary School. Title One schools receive discounted education programs. For more information about fee structure, please contact Education Programs Producer Kati Grace Brown.
- Playshop: Playshops are workshops in which Teaching Artists invite students to investigate a Shakespeare play by getting up on their feet and speaking Shakespeare’s lines for themselves.We can conduct Playshops in classrooms, auditoriums, or theaters, depending on the size of the student group. Teaching Artists can divide as many as 50 students into teams. Students work closely with an artist in small groups to unleash an exciting and immediate experience of Shakespeare’s language, which they quickly make their own through the acting process. The students’ ideas and interpretations are incorporated and woven into a final scene sharing to create a class “production” of the play.In our Playshops, each student can succeed. Students at all levels of reading comprehension and language skills can fully participate. Any Shakespeare play is available as a Playshop. The cost for any of our Playshops is $7/ student with a small additional fee assessed if we have to travel more than a 50 mile radius from our location in Atlanta.Playshop titles include (but are not limited to) “Romeo and Juliet,” “Macbeth,” “Hamlet,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Taming of the Shrew,” “Twelfth Night,” and “The Tempest.”If we do not have a Playshop on the Shakespearean title that a teacher requests, we can create one for a small administrative fee.Note: The Playshop lesson plan requires over twenty pages of excerpts from the play.
Sample Lesson Plans/Study Guides:
Program Videos:
- Listing ID: 5997