MEMPHIS, Tenn., May 28, 2021 – Tennessee Shakespeare Company today was 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 and Arts Midwest.
Arts Midwest (MN) named the U.S. recipients of $1.17 million in grants, with $1 million going to 40 professional theatre companies partnering with schools, and $170,000 going to ten organizations partnering with facilities in the juvenile justice system.
TSC receives the $25,000 matching grant for its innovative Romeo and Juliet Project in Memphis area schools. The Project is a four-part, in-school residency taught and performed in partnership with multiple area school systems. This comprehensive, anti-violence teaching/performance residency will be led by a diverse consortium of Teaching-Artists and delivered to more than 5,000 students in over 20 schools, most of which are defined as Title 1. Students will receive an immersive, 90-minute stage production of Romeo and Juliet followed by a 10-minute audience/actor talkback and interactive classroom sessions in which students live through many scenes from the play. Students will rehearse life-saving actions using Shakespeare’s text on their feet, as their ELA grades rise by one letter (on average) and their compassion and desire to read the next book increase as direct results of their participation in the Project.
TSC is one of just ten U.S. companies receiving a $15,000 grant for its Juvenile Justice Program. TSC focuses on incarcerated youth ages 13-17 held at Memphis’ Jail East as they await trials for serious crimes, and on youth 18 years old who are transferred to the Shelby County Criminal Complex Jail as they “age out” of Jail East. Trained TSC Teaching-Artists will empower these teenagers with ownership of Shakespeare’s Hamlet text over 80 sessions throughout the year, encouraging discovery, communication, empathy, compassion, service, and forgiveness.
“Funding for our National Endowment for the Arts is an American imperative if we hope to grow a national culture of inquiry, healthy dialogue, literacy, compassion, and humanity,” says TSC Founder and Producing Artistic Director, Dan McCleary. “We are grateful to the NEA and Arts Midwest for rewarding TSC’s year-round work with our intrepid artists and children in Memphis. We will expand our good work, and I hope both our Romeo and Juliet Project and Juvenile Justice Program will become education models that will be replicated nationally. They work.”
Now in its 19th year, Shakespeare in American Communities is a theatre program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest. By providing grants to theatre companies that produce Shakespeare’s work, the program supports high-quality productions and education activities in middle schools, high schools, and juvenile justice facilities throughout the United States between this August and July 2022.
To read the full Arts Midwest announcement, including all recipients and a map of their locations, please go to:
Season 13 Sponsors and Partners
TSC’s generous sponsors and partners of its season, productions, and Education and Outreach Program include International Paper, ArtsMemphis, Tennessee Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts and Arts Midwest, FedEx Corporation, First Horizon Foundation through an ArtsFirst grant, Community Foundation of Greater Memphis, Independent Bank, Evans|Petree, P.C., Auto Zone, Campbell Clinic, the family of Pat and Ernest Kelly, The Sims Family Foundation, Nancy R. Copp, the family of Owen and Margaret Wellford Tabor, Dr. Greta McCormick Coger, the Barbara B. Apperson Angel Fund, the Jack Jones Children’s Literacy Project and The Jones Family, the Dunbar Abston Fund for Sustainable Excellence, University of Memphis’ Department of Theatre & Dance, Shelby County Schools, Collierville Municipal School District, Memphis Juvenile Justice System, the Memphis V.A. Hospital, and the Benjamin Hooks Library Friends. TSC’s season is funded under a Grant Contract with the State of Tennessee.
