How these residencies work
Some of your students (up to 30) will get to act in the play! Our experience is that when we introduce students to Shakespeare through participation, it adds a whole new life to the show. The student body takes more ownership of the story.
Thirty days before we arrive, you download the materials you need from our website. You then cast your students as you think best fits their ability and interest level, and work with them on their parts as much as you are able. It is preferable that they learn their lines by the time we arrive – memorizing the lines helps solidify their understanding of the text… and besides, performances where students don’t have their scripts in their hands are a lot more fun for everyone!
You teach the play to your students, helping them understand the significance of their roles in telling the story of the play – why the characters say what they say and do what they do, and what it means. The level of detail and depth you go into when exploring Shakespeare’s text with your students is up to you, but we provide links to sites that may inspire you and we encourage teachers to make any rehearsal an active part of their teaching of the play. You don’t have to worry about blocking the play – though it’s fine if you play out scenes while you work with your students – as long as you let them know we will be incorporating them into blocking that we have specially created for the performance.
The day before the performance you and your students set up chairs and other seating units in your school gym. We provide a groundplan to show you what we need. Depending on the production you have chosen to have us stage, seats will need to be arranged to match our guidelines, and we will indicate where any overhead projectors or other common school paraphernalia that we will make use of for the day needs to go.
We arrive at your school the morning of your booking (usually about 8.15am). Our actor-directors work with your students, dividing them up into groups and rehearsing them into our production for about three hours. We provide the costumes, props and set – students just have to wear black pants, white tops, and black shoes. By lunch (around noon) we have choreographed the dances, the battle scenes and the pratfalls, and helped your students identify more closely with the play.
After lunch (1.5 hours, required) we stage the play for whatever audience you like – usually between 1pm and 3pm – for the rest of the student body. Our professional actors will play the pivotal roles, leaving substantial speaking roles for keen student actors, juicy smaller roles for students who want a more modest challenge, as well as fun, physical non-speaking parts.
The short rehearsal period keeps the student and the professional actors on their toes and playful! The performance gives students a chance to soar as they take a leap of courage in front of their peers. This is an incredible opportunity for your students to perform in a fully mounted show with professional actors, and allows them to experience theatre staged in a way that is closer to how Shakespeare’s plays were originally staged – expanding their understanding of the potential for creative art with minimal resources.
Funding Assistance
The Alberta Foundation for the Arts provides funding to schools on an annual basis. 50% of your costs can be covered by the AFA grant if your school is within 100km of Edmonton, and 75% can be covered by AFA grant if your school is more than 100km from Edmonton. Click here to download application forms and guidelines for the AFA’s Artists in Education project grant.
The grant application process for a residency is more complicated than that for our one-day workshop/performance productions. Theatre Prospero will be happy to help with your grant application. Please contact us for help.
A testimonial
“Even playing a small part in a group scene like that, I absolutely adored it… You have taught me to do your best, and hope it turns out all right. In this case it did. I’ve never truly been happy practicing things for drama before, but this time it was different… you helped me see what acting is about… it’s true love for what you are doing… ”
Elizabeth Hobbs, Grade 7 Student (1997-98?)
Laurier Heights Elementary Junior High
(directing our 2010-11 production of Macbeth!)
Theatre Prospero 