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How We Do It

American Friends is proud to represent the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in the United States to introduce the Trust’s education capabilities to American high schools. American Friends’ primary objective is to promote studies in Shakespeare’s life, work and times in situ in Stratford-upon-Avon, UK.

Since its founding in 1999, American Friends has enabled 28 undergraduate and graduate students to study at The Shakespeare Centre and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (“SBT”), Stratford-upon-Avon, U.K. In 2010 we expanded our objective to introduce American high school students to the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust where they learn about Shakespeare’s works, visit the area where he and his family lived to become familiar with the poet through first-hand knowledge of text and stage. SBT regularly welcomes groups of students from all over the world and also runs international teachers' programmes through the National Endowment for the Humanities and the English-Speaking Union.

The staff of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust can organize for your school a customized education program of classes and workshops, visit the properties, attend performances of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and tour Stratford-upon-Avon and environs.

The SBT staff are ready to collaborate to create a course of study that provides schools and students with appropriate activities and resources related to Shakespearian drama and history. SBT’s Administration Department organizes accommodation in local guesthouses known to them that includes lodging, breakfast and dinner, coach travel to and from the airport, theatre tickets to the Royal Shakespeare Company performances, visits to the SBT properties, and if desired, excursions to Warwick Castle, Bleinheim Palace, and Oxford.

Lakeside School, Seattle Washington launched the High School Initiative in 2010 with nine students, returning in 2011 with twelve students. In 2011, Concord Academy, Concord, MA, designed a course of study for sixteen students, while Horace Mann School, NY attended with nine students. All three schools were so pleased with their experiences that they are planning their 2012 curriculum. In addition, Trinity School, NY and School of the Holy Child, Rye, NY are designing their course of study for Summer 2012.

Student testimonials: Lakeside | Concord Academy
Educator testimonials: Lakeside | Concord Academy | Horace Mann

Nash House
Students visiting Nash's House and New Place

 

The SBT Education Department has produced the following generic outline as an example of the range of SBT’s activities in designing programs of study for students:

SBT can organize for your school:

  • engaging talks on any Shakespeare play and a wide variety of Shakespearian themes. These talks are great preparation for the theatre productions.
  • post-performance seminar style discussions on the productions you have seen. These encourage students to find their own critical voices and respond to other people's points of view.
  • question and answer sessions with members of The Royal Shakespeare Company are lively and unique experiences and help to provide intimate insights on the preparation and processes involved in putting on a Shakespeare play.
  • workshop style practical classes on any Shakespeare play. These serve as the ideal introduction to a more theatrically focussed group and would cover particular scenes, moments, characterization, and language.
  • professional voice workshops with a member of The Royal Shakespeare Company voice team. The students get first-hand experience of what the actors do each day of their working lives at the theatre.
  • sessions based around the archives, manuscripts, rare books, and precious objects which they care for as an organisation and which cast original light on Shakespeare's social and historical contexts, as well as on the study of his plays.
  • visits to the five Shakespeare Houses: Shakespeare's Birthplace, Anne Hathaway's Cottage, Hall's Croft, Nash's House and New Place and the Great Garden, and Mary Arden's House. Each of these properties plays a unique part in the life of Shakespeare.
  • visits to places of cultural interest in the region (Warwick Castle, Blenheim Palace); special city visits (Oxford or London), or Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.

Costs are dependent on content and extent of the programme.

 

Student housing - Evesham Place
Student housing - Evesham Place

 

A one-week workshop could include the following:

  • 3 Royal Shakespeare Company plays (possibly one play seen twice)
  • Lectures before each play
  • Entrance to the 5 Shakespeare Properties
  • Bed, breakfast and evening meals at local guesthouses (shared rooms)
  • 1 RSC Wigs and Makeup demonstration
  • 1 RSC Question and Answer session with an actor/director (subject to availability) based on previous night’s performance
  • 1 RSC voice class
  • 4 practical workshops and rehearsals
  • 1 archive session – finding out what choices actors in earlier productions have made