Idaho Shakespeare Festival

Boise, Idaho

Located in the capital city of Boise, Idaho Shakespeare Festival is the state's premiere theater arts organization. The festival provides five professional mainstage productions of classical works, statewide school tours, theater arts programming integrated into the curriculum, and outreach programs throughout diverse constituencies in the Inland Northwest. Through its school tours, Idaho Theater for Youth and Shakespearience, the festival annually reaches more than 50,000 students in kindergarten through 12th grade, including those in rural and remote communities. The festival's year-round Drama School fosters lifelong learning and appreciation of theater and provides ongoing classes for students of all ages. Matinees at the festival draw thousands of students to the amphitheater each September, with some students traveling as far as 300 miles, round trip. Apprenticeships and residencies are also offered for extended theatrical training. The festival is governed by a volunteer 40-member board of trustees, is managed by 10 permanent staff members, and serves as an artistic home for more than 180 artists, technicians, and service personnel. It also hosts hundreds of community volunteers each year, operates under contract with Actors' Equity Association, and is a member of Theatre Communications Group and The Shakespeare Theatre Association of America.

The Idaho Shakespeare Festival's educational outreach program, Shakespearience, annually brings the works of William Shakespeare to junior- and senior-high school students throughout Idaho and the Inland Northwest. Each 50-minute production is fully staged with sets, costumes, and music, and is presented along with related educational activities and materials. The popular tour brings arts education programming to schools in Idaho and surrounding communities, including those in rural, immigrant, Native American, and military communities, and to at-risk and underserved populations. The program's online study guide includes a synopsis of the play, a biography of William Shakespeare, comments from the director, actor biographies, discussion questions and activities, and links to further resource materials. Post-performance question-and-answer sessions and workshops explore themes and concepts in the play, as well as the discipline and artistic choices inherent to the process of theater. The 2008 Shakespearience tour will bring Hamlet to youth in grades 7–12 throughout Idaho and surrounding communities. In many rural communities, the Shakespearience performance is often the focal, community-wide event of the year. The Shakespearience actor/educators travel more than 7,000 miles annually through some of the region's most remote intermountain areas to bring Shakespeare's works to youth.

http://www.idahoshakespeare.org/