Oklahoma Shakespeare Tours To State Schools

Thanks to a generous grant from the Carolyn Watson Rural Oklahoma Community Foundation and its Community Grant program, Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park is touring rural schools this fall with their Short Shakespeare production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream". The tour includes visits to Colbert, Burns Flat-Dill City, Navaho, Snyder, Mountain View-Gotebo, Norwood,Tahlequah, Briggs, Tenkiller, Tushka, Valliant, Carnegie, Binger-Oney, Keota and Gracemont.

"We are so pleased to have received this grant," says Kathryn McGill, OSP Executive Director. "We have long wanted to expand our educational tours to smaller rural schools, and this offers us that opportunity", said McGill. " Reading Shakespeare can be intimidating to students. All Oklahoma public school students study Shakespeare as part of the curriculum and seeing a production live is the best way to introduce students to the Bard. This tour not only introduces theatre to kids but enhances their English class studies".

"I'm not sure how to explain how big of a deal this was for our school. Most of my students have never been to any kind of a live performance. You have given them an opportunity and experience that for many of them may be once in a lifetime." said teacher Amy Gipson from Tushka High School. "For the rest of the afternoon and again this morning, students and teachers have been coming to tell me how amazing you all were. Students enjoyed Shakespeare! What a day!"

About Short Shakespeare

Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park's educational mission is for students to develop a life long appreciation for the works of Shakespeare. In our 33 years of engaging with students at our student matinees and workshops and speaking with teachers we learned that although reading Shakespeare is part of the required classroom experience, indeed students in most Oklahoma schools read Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar and either Hamlet or Macbeth, many students had never seen a live professional performance of a Shakespeare play. Without this opportunity, many students think that Shakespeare's plays are an insurmountable tome of boring, impossible-to-understand writings that couldn't possibly be interesting or relevant to them. Although we reach a number of students with our student matinee series many schools cannot logistically or financially bring their students to the matinee. Busses are hard to schedule and although we offer a reduced ticket price, it is beyond the reach of some especially in the smaller rural schools.

Our Short Shakespeare touring program aims at bridging that gap. We present Shakespeare in dynamic and accessible ways in a 50 minute version of Shakespeare's plays. The mission of Short Shakespeare is to present dynamic and visually imaginative productions of Shakespeare's plays to elementary, middle and high school students. Although these productions are abridged for presentation in schools, the beauty and integrity of Shakespeare's language is preserved. We pride ourselves on capturing students' attention without "watering down" the plays themselves. As an added bonus, the program enables teachers to fulfill specific Common Core Standards in the areas of Visual and Performing Arts, Language Arts, Literacy and Social Studies.

About the Carolyn Watson Foundation

The Carolyn Watson Rural Oklahoma Community Foundation was founded by the late Carolyn Watson, CEO and chairman of Shamrock Bank, N.A., in 1995 to improve the quality of life in rural Oklahoma communities. Through its two grant programs, the organization promotes education, health, literacy and arts and the humanities in 20 Oklahoma counties. Since its inception, the Carolyn Watson Rural Oklahoma Community Foundation has awarded nearly $900,000 in grants to schools, teachers and communities in rural Oklahoma. Additionally, the Carolyn Watson Opportunities Scholarship offers awards of up to $10,000 per academic year for high school seniors graduating from 62 rural Oklahoma counties to attend college. For more information please visit www.ruraloklhoma.org.

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