Dog & Pony Theatre Company

New Orleans, Louisiana

The Dog & Pony Theatre Company was founded in New Orleans in 1989 by Artistic Director John Grimsley and Managing Producer Matt Borel as an alternative type of theater for both audiences and actors. The company was founded on the philosophy that theater can be created anywhere and, indeed, in its 18-year existence, John Grimsley and the company have created some of the most exciting and critically acclaimed theater in the south. They have produced everything from the local premieres of such Pulitzer Prize winners as David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross to the American classics of Eugene O'Neill, as well as outdoor productions of William Shakespeare. In the early 2000s, the company began to tailor its programming and productions towards original works and making Shakespeare more accessible to schools.

In 2007–2008, Dog & Pony Theatre Company will offer performances of The Taming of the Shrew and artist residencies to schools in the greater New Orleans area. The Taming of the Shrew has been adapted by Artistic Director John Grimsley into a performance of four actors. They arrive as traveling actors, with all their costumes and props in a chest, and perform in the “traveling bard” tradition. The company has found that this adaptation is the most accessible to students of diverse backgrounds and ages. The artist residencies are part of the Arts Experience In Schools (AXIS) program, which is a network of schools committed to using the arts to teach traditional subjects. The teachers will be given study guides developed by the Dog & Pony Theatre Company and AXIS. Through AXIS, teachers are trained on how to integrate the arts into their curriculum and are better prepared to engage students in the language and history of Shakespeare. The schools that will be targeted are struggling to recover from Hurricane Katrina; the school systems have been nearly dismantled, leaving behind four independent charter systems. AXIS is vital, because it forms relationships with principals and engages the administration, teaching staff, parents and students in order to guarantee a future of the arts in the classroom.