Stand Up for Shakespeare brings Hamlet to NYC kids
NEW YORK - The Royal Shakespeare Company and the Park Avenue Armory have teamed up to create a special program for NYC kids from under served communities called Stand Up for Shakespeare...
The Royal Shakespeare Company and the Park Avenue Armory have teamed up to create a special program for NYC kids from under served communities called Stand Up for Shakespeare. This program has children attend an adult production of Hamlet, and then write and perform their own.
Cassidy Jone, the Education Director of the program, says their goal is to open students up to the “possibilities of cultural institutions in the city.” So far, 800 kids between the ages of 8 and 14 have seen two performances by children this summer.
One woman, who has taught theater in almost 100 different New York City public schools, says that getting kids exited about Shakespeare begins by making sure they fully understand what is going on in the play. The current production is a 45 minute mash-up of Hamlet that the kids have helped write, which includes aspects of the classical as well as the modern.
Another teacher gushes that seeing the kids make the material their own gives her the chills.
Click here to watch an NBC New York report about the program.
