The most comprehensive in-school arts education provider in the Commonwealth, we provide interactive performances, touring productions, arts workshops and residencies, and professional development for educators.
To book an education performance for the summer or the 2023-2024 season, please email education@kyshakespeare.com or call us at 502-574-9900.
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Questions? Call 502-574-9900 or email us.
Ask us about our multiple booking and Title I Discounts
Study Guides with pre- and post-show activities available for all performances.
Teacher Arts Grants (TAG) and 5X5 funding options available through the Fund for the Arts.
Let our talented performers educate and entertain your students! Perfect for school assemblies or shared grade level content, our educational performances are 50-90 minutes long and include in-depth guided discussions that touch on key topics from school curriculum and academic standards.
“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ’em.” Shakespeare’s comedy of mistaken identity, role reversal, and unrequited love reveals the value of character, loyalty, and truth.
•Conflict Resolution and Healthy Relationships
•Interactive/Audience Participation
•Anti-Bullying and Peer Pressure
•Self-Esteem and Self-Respect
•Themes Tied to Issues of Today
•In-Depth Guided Q&A
Kentucky Shakespeare actors perform three selections from three plays—a comedy, tragedy, and history. Our actors engage the audience with active discussion between each scene, unpacking students’ discoveries while exploring content, structure, relationships, comprehension, language, and theme.
•Guided Discussion Throughout Performance
•Elements of Plot, Story and Character
•Conflict Resolution and Healthy Relationships
•Interactive/Audience Participation
•Universal Themes
“To be or not to be?” That is the question driving Hamlet as he uncovers a web of deceit and corruption in his quest to avenge his father. Performed by seven actors in 90 minutes. A short discussion and Q&A, included in the runtime, provides students the opportunity to analyze and interpret the play.
•Audience Connection and Relevance
•Conflict Resolution and Healthy Relationships
•Anti-Bullying and Peer Pressure
•Self-Worth and Self-Care
•Universal Themes
•In-Depth Guided Q&A
The perfect blend of history and Shakespeare! Against the backdrop of racial injustice during the 1800s, Ira Aldridge persevered to become the first Black man to perform Shakespeare’s leading men. This one-man show follows Aldridge’s quest to carve his own path, inspiring students to utilize their own power and sense of purpose to overcome life’s obstacles.
*Note: This performance is only available as a Pre-Recorded Option.
•Content/Events/Eras Covered: African American History, Reconstruction Era, Historical Perspective, Cultures and Societies, Humanities, Language, Comprehension and Collaboration, Speaking and Listening, College and Career Readiness in Literacy
Our professional actors use primary source documents to bring key events from United States history to life, focusing on our rights and responsibilities as a democratic society today. We the People asks students to reflect on America’s formation, ask questions, and consider civic action in their own communities.
Content/Events/Eras Covered: Road to Revolutionary Ware, Formation of a New Government, Westward Expansion, Social Reforms, Abolition, Civil War, Amendments 13-15, Progressive Movement, WWII, The Red Scare, Civil Rights Movement, Social Media and First Amendment Rights
Journey through time with our actors as they uncover the impressive history of Kentucky! Through primary source documents, we’ll explore the Commonwealth’s rich oral traditions, diverse geography, and vast contributions to the nation.
Content/Events/Eras Covered: Pre-historic Periods, The Great Dying, The Men & Women of Frontier KY, Daniel Boone, Lewis & Clark and York, Abraham Lincoln, The Civil War, The Hatfields & McCoys, Stephen Foster, and Kentucky State Facts
Our 50-minute Interactive Performances offer more hands-on educational opportunities for classes of up to 30 students. Our Artist Educators lead the students through performing for their peers, and offer a fun introduction to story and drama elements, creative problem solving, and critical thinking.
With the help of our Artist Educator, your students perform a fun and fast paced version of Twelfth Night both with and for their peers in this fully interactive workshop. Students explore character, dialogue, theme, and technical elements of theatre to build teamwork skills, vocabulary, self-confidence, and a love of Shakespeare.
•Critical Thinking
•Creative Problem Solving
•Story and Drama Elements
•Performance for Peers
•Fully Interactive
Students explore the history, culture, geography, and oral traditions surrounding fairy tales as they perform them with their classmates. This program is an excellent introduction to drama and storytelling, blending folk tales, a variety of morals, and lessons and self-confidence.
•Critical Thinking
•Creative Problem Solving
•Story and Drama Elements
•Performance for Peers
•Fully Interactive
Our in-school and after-school workshops and extended residencies provided targeted experiental learning built to meet your needs. Choose from any of the workshops below, or have us design one specifically for you. All workshops include a Performance, Critical Thinking/Creative Problem Solving, and Full Interactivity and Engagement. Prices vary number of sessions and duration.
The great poets of our time pair up with the greatest writer of all time. Students explore Shakespeare’s sonnets and verse alongside contemporary music to discover rhythm, poetry, and language.
Our trained Artist Educators lead group activities focusing on affirmation, communication, cooperation, and strategies to deal positively with conflict. Students learn to identify and interrupt bullying behavior without escalation.
Follow the history of acting while learning the fundamentals of the craft through group improvisational exercises led by our Artist Educator. Explore acting tools and techniques from rehearsal to performance.
Students learn how to safely perform a staged fight using hand-to-hand combat and sword play.
Our signature workshop introduces elements of Shakespeare and drama while practicing teamwork and problem solving. Students work through the rehearsal process using Shakespeare’s text to create their own uniquely staged, student-driven performance piece. Shakespeare selections based on your classroom needs.
Learn and perform the social dances of Shakespeare’s day including the Pavane, Gathering Peascods and more, led by our Artist Educator.
Our play study workshop welcomes your students to the world of Shakespeare. We’ll take the play you’re studying, explore Shakespeare’s language, highlight key characters and scenes, and unpack major elements and themes.
A performance workshop featuring strong young women of Shakespeare, filled with active discussion and activities between scenes, focusing on issues still affecting young people today.
Student groups analyze a Shakespearean scene and employ the real world applications of mathematical concepts including fractions, ratios, and measurement conversions to conversions—to determine everything they’d need to bring their scene to life on different size stages.
Minimum of 5 sessions
Our in-school and after-school workshops and extended residencies provided targeted experiential learning built to meet your needs. Choose from any of the workshops below, or have us design one specifically for you. All workshops include a Performance, Critical Thinking/Creative Problem Solving, and Full Interactivity and Engagement. Prices vary number of sessions and duration.
Our From the Page to the Stage workshop provides strategies for educators to bring the creative process, the performing arts, Shakespeare, and his works to the classroom.
Kentucky Shakespeare’s Professional Development brings creative approaches and concepts from the arts and theatre to your team. Workshops can be customized and built from the ground up. We work with your school’s coordinator to create an individually designed experience to address the needs of your education team, including: arts implementation into teaching strategies, STEAM concepts and integration, team building, cooperation and understanding, creative problem-solving, and improvisation.
Kentucky Shakespeare’s Professional Development brings arts, theatre and creativity to the workplace. Workshops can be customized to address specific needs of teachers or the organization. Past corporate sessions include workshops for Brown-Forman, Metro United Way, and Humana.
Focuses may include but are not limited to:
“Great performance! The students loved it and learned so much about Shakespeare and elements of a dramatic performance!” – Teacher, Conway Middle School
Kentucky Shakespeare’s 2022-2023 education programs are made possible in part thanks to a generous grant from the Amgen Foundation.
Kentucky Shakespeare’s Spring Tour and Juvenile Justice Program are programs of the Arts Midwest and the National Endowment for the Arts Shakespeare in American Communities Program.
2022 Voices of Young Women workshops are made possible through the generosity of a Kentucky Foundation for Women Arts Meets Activism grant.
To book a performance or workshop, contact Hannah Pruitt at (502) 574-9900 or hannah@kyshakespeare.com.
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