Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival & Touchstone Theatre Awarded NEA grants

That two Lehigh VAlley Theatres were awarded separate grants from the National Endowment for the Arts signature program, "Shakespeare in American Communities/ Shakespeare for a New Generation" is unprecedented. Outside major metropolitan areas around the country, no other community the size of the Lehigh Valley has received two grants in one year. Forty non-profit theatre companies across the U.S. won the $25,000 awards.

The Shakespeare in American Communities/Shakespeare for a New Generation (SIAC) initiative was launched in 2003 to expose middle and high schools across the country to the power of live theatre and the works of William Shakespeare. Although Touchstone has received other NEA grants, the SIAC award is its first in that category. PSF has received the award in three of the last five years, 2005, 2007, and 2008. Other Pennsylvania theatres that received the award this year are The Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble and the Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre.

Touchstone Theatre will tour a new adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest, which the company performed in November as part of its regular season at its Bethlehem theatre. A three-member cast plays ten-plus roles in a 90-minute adaptation. Targeted schools include: Allentown School District, Bangor Area School District, Lehigh Valley Performing Arts Charter School, and six school districts in Adams County (Gettysburg area). The company's education programming toured to 17 schools and two colleges in Pennsylvania in 2009-2010, reaching about 7,800 students.

"To be recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts for our work is a always a great honor, and this grant will enable us to expose more youth to our unique take on Shakespeare in a deeper and more profound way," says Touchstone Touring Manager and Ensemble Member Bill George.

The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival's signature education program, The Linny Fowler WillPower Tour, an annual fall touring performance of a Shakespeare play, was launched in 2000 at William Allen High School. Since then, the WillPower tour has served approximately 90,000 students and educators at more than 100 schools in small and mid-sized communities throughout a tri-state area, and in more than half of Pennsylvania's 67 counties. Twenty-four of the PA counties served are the direct result of NEA funding. The upcoming fall tour, October 6 through November 19, features Hamlet, performed by professional actor/teachers, and directed by PSF Education Director Erin Hurley.

"In this era of tightening budgets, these awards demonstrate how professional artists and theatre companies can work with schools to build on the strengths in a quality curriculum that can have lasting effects on the students of our Commonwealth," says Patrick Mulcahy, PSF producing artistic director. "Education succeeds when it succeeds in engaging the student. The NEA recognizes Shakespeare's capacity to quicken imaginations and awaKen Young hearts and minds to the power of language."

Touchstone Theatre offers a season of mainstage performances for the general public including contemporary, classic, and original ensemble-created works at the theatre's headquarters in Bethlehem, PA. Over the past 29 years, Touchstone has gained a reputation of being a pre-eminent provider of arts-in-education programs for at-risk and underserved youth. Whether on site at the theatre, at local schools or on tour, the Touchstone Ensemble has developed long-term relationships with educators who request the company return to bring innovative programs that engage students who have a passion for the arts and/or otherwise would not be exposed to the arts.

The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival is a professional theatre in residence at DeSales University, and produces six plays each summer on the Center Valley campus, including two plays by Shakespeare, classical selections drawn from world literature, musicals, and children's theatre. This summer season from June 4 through August 8 includes Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet and The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Playboy of the Western World by J.M. Synge, and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart; music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Family programming includes Robin Hood and Shakespeare for Kids.

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