Tennessee Shakespeare Company has been announced as one of only four professional regional theatre companies to receive both the Shakespeare in American Communities-Schools grant and Shakespeare in American Communities-Juvenile Justice grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest for programming during the 2022-23 season.
As a Schools grant awardee, TSC is one of 40 professional theatre companies across the nation selected to perform a Shakespeare play with a professional team of actors for middle and high schools and conduct related educational activities for students.
As a Juvenile Justice grant awardee, TSC is one of nine organizations across the nation selected to engage youths within the juvenile justice system with the works of Shakespeare through theatre education programs.
The Schools grant award is for $25,000 and requires a 1:1 match for the launch of TSC’s new Macbeth Initiative in Memphis area schools. The Macbeth Initiative is built upon TSC’s professional, six-actor production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The production celebrates the stagecraft known to Shakespeare’s touring groups while illuminating a moral dilemma that resounds within the fabric of modern America: Can I serve myself first at the expense of my society? The project includes a teacher-training session that empowers classroom educators in their teaching of the play; an in-class playshop where students live the characters, speak Shakespeare’s text, and face the play’s moral dilemmas; and a 15-minute post-show talkback. The play will perform for 2,800 students on TSC’s Tabor Stage and in at least 13 public/charter core partnering high schools, most of which serve at-risk students.
The Juvenile Justice grant award is for $20,000, does not require a match, and will pay for TSC’s certified Teaching-Artists to provide 80 program sessions over the year for incarcerated youth ages 13-17 held at Memphis’ Jail East and Shelby County Juvenile Detention Center. In two, 90-minute sessions per week per facility, TSC encourages literacy, self-discovery, communication, and empathy through the exploration and performance of speeches and scenes from Shakespeare’s plays for at least 60 participants.
“When most theatres shut down these past two years, TSC created programming that creatively and safely responded to our community’s needs through Shakespeare,” says TSC Founder and Producing Artistic Director, Dan McCleary. “Our mission as a professional service organization through the classical arts was confirmed, and we are grateful to the NEA and Arts Midwest for rewarding this creative service by investing in TSC’s intrepid artists as they, in turn, invest in Memphis’ children, educators, and incarcerated youth. We are very proud to have the NEA and Arts Midwest in our country.”
Celebrating its 20th year in 2023, Shakespeare in American Communities is a theatre program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest. The program supports high-quality productions and educational activities exploring the work of William Shakespeare in middle schools, high schools, and juvenile justice facilities throughout the United States. For the first time this year, theatre companies were able to choose to either perform a play by Shakespeare or select an adaptation or new play that incorporates Shakespeare’s scenes or monologues. Paired with these performances, each company will host educational activities with students to creatively explore Shakespeare’s work and its context. These performances and educational events will take place between August 1, 2022, and July 31, 2023. To read the full Arts Midwest announcement, including all recipients, please go to:
https://www.artsmidwest.org/news/2022/shakespeare-american-communities-grants-announced
Season 14 Sponsors and Partners
TSC’s generous sponsors of its season, productions, and Education and Outreach Program include FedEx, International Paper, ArtsMemphis, Shakespeare in American Communities: National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest, Tennessee Arts Commission, Independent Bank, Evans|Petree, P.C., First Horizon Foundation through an ArtsFirst grant, AutoZone, Campbell Clinic, the family of Pat and Ernest Kelly, The Sims Family Charitable Trust, Nancy R. Copp, the Jack Jones Children’s Literacy Fund, the family of Owen and Margaret Wellford Tabor, the Barbara B. Apperson Angel Fund, the Dunbar Abston Fund for Sustainable Excellence, Anne and Michael Keeney, Irene and Fred Smith, and the Memphis City Council. TSC’s season is funded under a Grant Contract with the State of Tennessee; and this project is supported, in whole or in part, by federal award number SLFRP5534, awarded to the State of Tennessee by the U.S. Department of Treasury.
TSC’s programming and outreach partners include University of Memphis’ Department of Theatre & Dance, Shelby County Schools, Collierville Municipal School District, Memphis Juvenile Justice System, the Memphis V.A. Hospital, Cities of Bartlett/Collierville/Germantown/Lakeland/Memphis, and the Benjamin Hooks Public Library Friends.
About Tennessee Shakespeare Company:
Tennessee Shakespeare Company is a professional, not-for-profit theatre and education organization in Memphis dedicated to live, diverse performances of William Shakespeare’s plays, as well as works of social significance by classical, Southern, and modern writers/composers; and to providing innovative educational and training programming in-person and online.
Founded in 2008 by Producing Artistic Director Dan McCleary, Tennessee Shakespeare Company is Memphis’ first and only professional, classical theatre. In 2017, TSC purchased its first performing arts facility, which is being renovated into the state’s only permanent home for professional, year-round Shakespeare performance, education, and training. The company is engaged in its Brave New World capital campaign with a goal of $9.2 million, of which nearly one-third has been raised.
TSC has engaged its community with 58 site-specific plays and events for over 52,000 patrons. Its ground-breaking Education Program has reached 120 schools across nine states, totaling over 275,000 student interactions. The Program has achieved a high regional and national profile, partners annually with most local school systems, and this year is a recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts/Arts Midwest’s Shakespeare in American Communities grants: one for The Romeo and Juliet Project in underserved local schools, and the other for expanded residencies with local incarcerated youth. TSC is one of just a handful of U.S. theatres to be awarded this grant for the third consecutive year.
