Adventures with Shakespeare!
For Grades: Rising 1st – Rising 3rd
Dates: June 1-5 (One Week)
Time: 9:00 am – 3:00 pm
Cost: $300; Early Bird by April 1: $255
Kick off your summer with a journey through Shakespeare’s plays! Students will get to know Shakespeare’s stories through interactive storytelling, games, and arts and crafts. Every student will be able to explore what kind of adventurer they are! Are they in disguise like Viola from Twelfth Night? Are they boldly striding through danger like the pirates in Pericles? Or are they crafty and wise like Prospero from The Tempest? As they find their inspiration, we will guide them through acting techniques and scenes that inspire them, culminating in a sharing with family and friends on the final day of camp!
The Magic of Shakespeare and Science!
For Grades: Rising 3rd – Rising 6th
Dates: June 1-5 (One Week)
Time: 9:00 am – 3:00 pm
Cost: $300; Early Bird by April 1: $255
How do we make magic onstage? Through science, of course! With simple scientific principles and acting techniques, students will create magical worlds from Shakespeare’s plays onstage. Theatre professionals have used science for centuries to highlight spooky and fantastical scenes. Your camper will get to try some of our favorites! Acting skills, movement techniques, and your student’s imagination will bring the characters to life in scenes from Macbeth, Cymbeline, and other plays. Potions? No problem. Secret messages? Unlocked! This week culminates in a sharing of our work on the final afternoon of camp.
All the World’s a Stage!
For Grades: Rising 3rd – Rising 6th
Dates: June 8-12 (One Week)
Time: 9:00 am – 3:00 pm
Cost: $300; Early Bird by April 1: $255
A week-long camp of acting and crafts focused on Shakespeare’s As You Like It! Characters head into the forest of Arden and find shepherds, dukes, goats, and comedy gold. Every student will have the opportunity to play multiple characters that will challenge them to think outside the box. Whether they want to play the clown, the princess, the duke, the goat gal, or the wrestler, this play is for them! Acting games, arts and crafts, and outdoor activities will deepen their understanding of the story and provide props for their sharing on the final day of classes!
Myth Mashup
For Grades: Rising 3rd – Rising 6th
Dates: June 22-26 (One Week)
Time: 9:00 am – 3:00 pm
Cost: $300; Early Bird by April 1: $255
Using the myths that inspired Shakespeare, we will explore stories from all over the world, including Thor and Loki, Anansi the Spider, and Egyptian gods. Each day focuses on stories about a different world, inspiring our own arts projects, movement classes, and acting out the highlights of the stories. Each student will have the chance to play characters from Shakespeare’s stories, while also creating images and ideas for their own creatures and characters. The week culminates in a sharing of our artwork, our creature curations, and scenes on the final day of camp!
Making Myths
For Grades: Rising 6th – Rising 9th
Dates: June 15-19 (One Week)
Time: 9:00 am – 3:00 pm
Cost: $300; Early Bird by April 1: $255
Inspired by the retelling of the Odysseus myth with Epic: the Musical, we will dive into stories and myths from all over the world for inspiration to create our own mini-scenes and monologues based on your student’s favorite tropes. Are they fascinated with creatures from Greek mythology? Do they love the tales of adventure from Robin Hood? Now they get to explore their own version of the stories with games, arts and crafts, journaling, and performance coaching to share their vision of these enduring stories! This week culminates in a sharing of our work on the final afternoon of camp.
Dig Into Shakespeare Drama
For Grades: Rising 6th – Rising 9th
Dates: June 22-26 (One Week)
Time: 9:00 am – 3:00 pm
Cost: $300; Early Bird by April 1: $255
We dig into Shakespeare’s most famous dramas in this class for middle school students. Combined with acting games, exercises, journaling, and visual art, your student will be able to engage with timeless characters who are going through so many popular YA novel narrative tropes: hate-to-love, betrayal of friendship, and love notes gone awry! Scenes from Two Gentlemen of Verona, Romeo and Juliet, and more will give your camper the chance to take these scenes from history to a real-life situation from today. They won’t want to miss out on this week of fun, which will culminate in a chance for friends and family to see the drama for themselves!
The Teen Shakespeare Company
For Grades: Rising 9th – Recently Graduated 12th
Dates: June 8-19 (Two Weeks)
Time: 9:00 am – 3:00 pm
Cost: $550; Early Bird by April 1: $467
Designed to challenge and engage teens, this two-week course will allow campers to investigate Shakespeare’s plays and characters. We will work with each camper individually to identify their goals for the camp, whether that is stretching their acting skills, improving their character analysis, trying on new movement techniques, or connecting with friends in a creative environment. Expect games, targeted journaling sessions, group movement exercises, and top-notch acting coaching from our team of teaching-artists. As the camp progresses, each student will invest in individual and group performance pieces designed around their interests. We will culminate the two-week intensive with a sharing on our Tabor Stage on the last day of classes!
If you have any questions, please contact Sarah Hankins at sarahhankins@tnshakespeare.org.
All levels of experience are welcome for any of TSC’s Summer Camps!
What can campers expect?
We explore voice, movement, dance, and even stage combat! We help campers build an awareness of their voices and bodies, for use in performance. We provide a safe and professionally supervised environment to explore stage combat, where students will be instructed on proper form and technique for entry-level Renaissance weapon use for creating the illusion of violence within the action of a scene. Campers engage in the visual arts through arts and crafts projects that highlight each play.
As we continue our exploration of the performance, more time is focused on rehearsal of the production the campers share at the end of camp! Friends and family are welcome to join us on our final day for a sharing celebration of the campers’ accomplishments.
What should campers bring?
Campers are asked to wear loose-fitting clothing and closed-toe shoes for safety and comfort. Each camper should bring a water bottle in addition to a lunch and a snack.
Health criteria: TSC will follow all health recommendations announced by the Shelby County Public Health Department at the start of and during each Camp. Should a participant feel or show symptoms of illness, or register a high temperature, the participant will need to remain home, and TSC will need to be contacted immediately. Thank you.