“In a perfect world, Santa Monica Playhouse
would be a national treasure.”
Stewart McGill, Artistic Director, Playbox Theatre, U.K.

Project Shakespeare

Programs for Grades 6 - 12

For almost half a century, Santa Monica Playhouse, now celebrating its 44th anniversary, is acknowledged as a world leader in theatre arts education, presenting effective and accessible critically acclaimed theatre-for-youth to over one million students in grades K through 12. Santa Monica Playhouse is one of only ten City arts organizations recognized through the SMARTS Arts in Schools and Demonstration Project for the California Arts Council as qualified and selected by a peer review process to teach arts in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD). .

For over forty years, Santa Monica Playhouse has presented effective educational and accessible theatre workshops for students and teachers in middle schools, high schools and universities throughout Southern California, as well as across the nation and around the world. Project: SHAKESPEARE is an outgrowth of work done with more than 10,000 students to date, at the Playhouse Arts Complex in Santa Monica, as well as with the English Shakespeare Company, England’s Royal National Theatre Education Department and Playbox Theatre for Youth, and Model Language Studio in Tokyo. The program is an in-depth exploration of Shakespearean text, with special emphasis on helping students discover the beauty of the language as they  make personal connections and find contemporary equivalents to the material. Project: SHAKESPEARE offers three definitive workshop programs for both students and teachers of Shakespeare.

Program One: FROM PAGE TO STAGE...

brings a maximum of thirty-five students to the Playhouse Arts Complex in Santa Monica for a two-hour on-stage workshop with two professional performer/educators. You choose one of the following that best suit your curriculum:

Understanding Verse • Making Sense • Discovering Imagery & Themes • Exploring the Characters • Considering Status and Hierarchy • Contemporary Equivalents • In Your Own Words

Students may be studying Shakespeare as literature, and of course, the starting point for all work as actors must be the text, but understanding the text may be best accomplished by breathing life into the work. Through the use of theatre games and exercises, students bring the words off the page and onto the stage, working with masks and props, exploring different ways to support and tell the story and creating a mini-performance that is presented at the end of the two-hour session.

Cost: $250.00 for one two-hour session (if booking two two-hour sessions in one day, cost is $225 per session).

brings one of our theatre artists to your classroom of up to thirty-five students for a one-hour exploration of verse, text, and personal connection to the material.

Cost: $125 (if booking two consecutive classroom sessions in any one day, cost is $100 per session; for three consecutive sessions, cost is $75.00 per session).

Program Three: TOOLS FOR TEACHERS...

is a three-hour in-service program specifically designed to give teachers new tools to make the teaching of Shakespeare exciting and enlightening, and to help them discover ways to turn the learning of Shakespearean text from a cultural chore to an inspired study of the beauty and imagery of his poetic language, epic stories and universal themes, offering students a multi-faceted platform from which to view the world. The session, led by a professional performer/director and accommodating up to ten teachers, may be held either at our facility of yours.

Cost: $300

All Santa Monica Playhouse Education Conservatory programs are crafted to augment the State Educational Standards. Performances, discussions and workshops place special emphasis on fulfilling requirements in Theatre, Reading, Writing, Oral English Language Conventions, Music, History, Dance, Listening and Speaking.

“We cannot thank you enough for all that you have done for us. This is an experience the students will carry with them all of their lives.” Northridge High School, Ohio

"This in-service was the best I’ve attended in years. It was inspirational personally as well as professionally."
Rosewood Park School

“You are making a difference in people’s lives.”
Marco Gudiño (11th Grade)

“The students were engaged and actively interested. We were all impressed.”
Santa Monica Alternative School


 

Only a limited number of performances are available each semester.
To book a show, a workshop, or for more information, contact us at:

phone: 310- 394-9779 ext. 3             e-mail: education@SantaMonicaPlayhouse.com