Ashland, Ore.--The Oregon Shakespeare Festival has been selected to participate in the 2008-09 Shakespeare for a New Generation program, a major initiative sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts in cooperation with Arts Midwest. OSF is among 40 theater companies to receive funding.
OSF received $25,000 for 168 performances of four Shakespeare plays plus related classroom curricula and 80 actor workshops, post-show discussions, tours, Prologues and teacher training classes for 700 students in 24 Oregon and California schools. The funding deepens and broadens OSF's work with these elementary, middle and high school students, who are participating in School Visit Partnerships, the Bowmer Project for Student Playgoers and the Ashland Schools Project.
The participating schools are in thirteen communities in Oregon and three communities in Siskiyou County, California. The four Shakespeare plays that students will attend are A Midsummer Night's Dream, Othello and The Comedy of Errors (2008) and Macbeth (2009.)
While OSF has always had a strong education department with far-reaching educational programming, continuing trends in the field of education have affected student attendance at the theater. This grant will help OSF offer discounted performances to student groups; expand the distribution of theater education materials to teachers; encourage participation by teachers in OSF's professional development programs; reduce program fees for schools; and identify new and increased private support for education.
Schools are seated with general audiences for all eleven main stage productions; OSF has no student-only performances. A fundamental education goal is preparing every student to understand and enjoy the play he/she is seeing. Education staff teach students what to expect in the theater and what is expected, ensuring a quality experience for all. In 2007, 76.8% of visiting students attended an OSF education event. Actors often comment on attentive, engaged, well-informed student groups.
Fifteen, or two-thirds, of the Festival's education programs focus on students and teachers. These 15 programs reach culturally, economically and geographically diverse schools from across the western United States.
Student attendance was 67,876 for the 2007 season, February through October 2007. The touring School Visit Program reached another 74,620 students in four states (CA, OR, WA, KS) in 2007, bringing the total number of students served by OSF to 142,316 for the year.
"The NEA's Shakespeare initiative not only introduces millions of Americans to the English language's greatest writer, but it also brings the experience of professional theater to many students who have never seen it before," said NEA Chairman Dana Gioia. "I am delighted that through Shakespeare for a New Generation, we have benefited not only students, but also their teachers, as well as provided employment to numerous actors and theater professionals."
For a listing of the 40 theater companies selected to participate in Shakespeare for a New Generation for 2008-2009 go to the NEA's website.
To enhance the educational impact of the program, the National Endowment for the Arts has created high-quality and comprehensive multimedia educational toolkits for teachers. These educational toolkits include a teacher's manual with lesson plans, "Fun with Shakespeare" brochure with word games, recitation contest guide, timeline poster, audio CD, educational video, and inspirational DVD. These kits can be ordered here.
The National Endowment for the Arts is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts, both new and established; bringing the arts to all Americans; and providing leadership in arts education. Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Arts Endowment is the largest national funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases.
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