Shakespeare & Company

Riotous Youth Summer Registration Opens

Registration is now open for Shakespeare & Company's Riotous Youth sessions this summer. Now in its 15th season, the summer program at the Lenox, Mass., theater introduces students age 7–18 to the language, story, characters, and ideas in Shakespeare's plays in imaginative and playful ways. Sessions are for students ages 7–9, 10–12, 13–15, and an advanced program for returning high school students.

Riotous Youth Sessions are two weeks long. Each focuses on a different Shakespeare play. This year, Riotous Youth will be exploring A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry IV, and The Tempest. The ten sessions run June 30–Aug. 22.

Riotous Youth Company is designed to provide an opportunity for young actors to take the next step in their training. Actors who are heading into 9th–12th grade who have participated in Riotous Youth for at least two sessions, or have equivalent experience in other Shakespeare & Company Education Programs, are eligible to apply. Classes may include ensemble building, voice, movement, clown, fight, and acting. At the end of the three weeks, from Aug. 4–22, actors will perform scenes chosen specifically for them from a number of Shakespeare's plays.

All sessions incorporate voice, movement, acting, and theater games, which enable young actors to explore the plays intellectually, physically, and emotionally, and present their versions in a performance piece based on their explorations. Performances on the final day of each session are attended by family members, friends, teachers, and staff of Shakespeare & Company.

To register or for more information, contact Jenna Ware, associate director of education, at 413-637-1199 ext. 172 or go to www.shakespeare.org/riotousyouth. Registration for Riotous Youth is ongoing, but subject to space availability.

“We are thrilled that Shakespeare & Company's Riotous Youth Sessions continues to allow young people to take part in this truly one-of-a-kind summer program,” said Ware in a press release. The team of Shakespeare & Company Education Artists teaching the sessions includes Caroline Calkins, Kelly Galvin, Luke Reed, Caitlin Kraft, Josie Wilson, and Alexandra Allen. Many will also be performing this summer in Romeo and Juliet in The Dell at the Mount, Edith Wharton's Home, and The Servant of Two Masters at Shakespeare & Company's Rose Footprint.

March 26, 2014

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