Spotlight on a New Generation: 2006-2007 Season

Arizona Theater Company

Twelfth Night

In September and October of 2006, Arizona Theatre Company (ATC) partnered with 12 schools from across Arizona to bring students in grades 7–12 to their first professional Shakespearean production (Twelfth Night). The project targeted underserved, rural, or low-income schools and provided free tickets, transportation money to subsidize bus costs, and free pre and post-performance guest artist workshops with ATC education staff, teaching artists, and actors.

The student response during the performances was exhilarating both to the education staff as well as the actors. Many actors stated that the best audiences were the five student matinee audiences, pointing out that the students laughed at language jokes that the adult audiences did not. It was apparent to the actors that the student audiences had been prepared for the production, the language, and the plot of Twelfth Night, thus allowing the students to truly enjoy the art and the play of Shakespeare.

ATC has created a PowerPoint presentation documenting their activities as a part of this initiative and kindly agreed to share it. Use the Play button to start the presentation, or navigate through using the Previous and Next buttons.