The Nashville Shakespeare Festival

Nashville, TN

The Nashville Shakespeare Festival was founded in 1988 and has grown to become one of the region's professional theaters and a local authority on the works of William Shakespeare. Each summer, the company presents its annual Shakespeare in the Park production at Centennial Park, which is free and accessible to people from all cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. In response to the need for arts-in-education program in the Nashville Public Schools, in 1992, the festival developed an educational outreach program. The program began by touring a series of abridged productions of Shakespeare's best-known works to middle schools, high schools, colleges, and universities throughout the state. Over the years, the festival has become a trusted resource for schools by offering enriching in-classroom workshops, creative opportunities, and performances for students. In 2008, The Nashville Shakespeare Festival found a permanent winter home in the Troutt Theater at Belmont University, where it offers school matinees and public performances of a Shakespeare production each January. Outreach activities have expanded to include business and adult groups, and workshops that exercise creative thinking, problem solving, and effective communication by working with Shakespeare's language, characters, and themes.

As part of Shakespeare for a New Generation, The Nashville Shakespeare Festival will present The Tempest at the Troutt Theater. The production will be directed by Education Director Claire Syler, whose vision for the production is inspired by the epic geometry of Robert Wilson and the organic artistry of Julie Taymor. Ms. Syler plans an athletic production, full of body-based imagery and an evocative use of fabric, which will serve as the primary metaphor for the play's magic. Creative collaborators June Kingsbury and Tom McBryde will contribute costume design and original musical compositions; the show will be performed by a cast comprised of 10 professional actors and an ensemble of seven Belmont University student actors. Students from high schools in the middle of Tennessee will attend weekday matinees and receive accompanying in-classroom workshops at their schools. Each of Nashville's Title I public high schools will also attend and receive workshops free-of-charge, along with assistance with transportation costs.

Visit them at: www.nashvilleshakes.org