NYC
Residencies
WORKSHOP NATIONWIDE
1 DAY
The Acting Company is dedicated the development of not only the actor, but the audience. We offer educational opportunities throughout NYC. These include our annual Shakespeare School Tour, one-off workshops, and more immersive residencies.
Both workshops and residencies are cross-curricular drama-based exploration of language, literature, visual art, music, design, and acting. The Teaching Artists use a variety of teaching techniques, modeling new teaching techniques for the classroom teacher and leading the students through experiential learning at its best. In their work with students and teachers, Teaching Artists stress the multidisciplinary and collaborative nature of the theater. Students read, write, improvise, play with language, and explore the play in a variety of ways. Each residency is designed with the classroom teacher to meet the specific curriculum needs of the students.
Workshop Styles
PRIMARY SHAKESPEARE
Primary Shakespeare is a residency for elementary school students, it is designed to be one of the children’s first forays into Shakespeare. Lead by our experienced teaching artists it features games and exercises that are both fun and educational, laying the groundwork for the young students to read and watch Shakespeare in the future.
LEARNING THROUGH THEATER
Learning Through Theater residency program is a week-long, intensive exploration of one play. Teaching Artists specially trained by The Acting Company spend up to five days working in a school, teaching a hands-on curriculum related to a play in The Acting Company's repertoire. At the end of the week, students attend the play, and have an opportunity to meet and share ideas with the actors in the company.
8th Grade and older only. The Students and their classroom Teachers MUST attend The Acting Company’s performance. The school is responsible for purchasing tickets and transportation to and from the performance.
THEATER AS CAREER
Theater as a Career offers students a chance to talk with alumni of The Acting Company about the nuts and bolts of the theater as a career. It begins with the artists (often actors, but often including other disciplines) discussing their own paths into the theatre and addressing any specific focus that was asked for by the presenter. It then opens up to questions from the audience and a more general discussion of what a theatrical career entails.
DOWNLOADABLE MATERIALS
For Teachers
The Acting Company’s Shakespeare for Teachers professional development workshops empower educators to develop new approaches to teaching the works of William Shakespeare and heightened language through interactive physical and vocal engagement, text analysis of verse and prose, and theater integration techniques.
Study Guides
We create Study Guides for each project filled with information about the play, the playwright, the creative team, and a wide variety of exercises for use both before and after students watch a production. While they are designed as a tool for teachers, these guides are also useful to the theaters and the students themselves.
Shakespeare School Tour
Each year we send a Shakespeare production on tour into NYC public schools. These pared down productions perform in auditoriums, gymnasiums, and classrooms to engage the students on their home ground. Filled with music, fights, and laughter these beautifully acted productions strive to impart our love of Shakespeare to a new generation.
“Romeo & Juliet is a great story. It has everything that you want like jokes, love, death and even more. That is the most amazing story I ever saw.”
—3rd Grade Student