Shakespeare Ensemble

Featured In: A New Generation Takes on Romeo and Juliet | Making Shakespeare: The First Folio | GP on PBS

The Tempest at The Newman Theater

The Children’s Shakespeare Ensemble is a year-long program that brings the work of William Shakespeare to 4th, 5th, and 6th grade Hunts Point students.

In collaboration with the world-renowned Public Theater, the Children’s Shakespeare Ensemble is a troupe of young actors and singers who work on a Shakespeare play for 8 months, and in the spring present fully produced performances, complete with sets, lights, costumes, and music composed just for their production. This year-long program gives students the opportunity to read, understand, and internalize a Shakespeare play: they become Shakespeare’s characters in their own voices and bodies; they enact their own interpretations of his stories; they own his words and make them familiar to their community. In the course of a year, the students participate in workshops on acting, music, movement, and the play’s historical context, as well as rehearsing for the specific play they will present.

Focused on increasing student literacy skills, critical thinking, school engagement, social skills, emotional intelligence, and commitment, students explore the universal human themes in Shakespeare’s work, while also developing the mental focus, emotional discipline, and long term commitment necessary to accomplish putting on a 90-minute piece of theater. HPAC recruits students in April for the following school year and accepts referrals from teachers, parents, and community members.

More than 250 students have participated in the Hunts Point’s Children’s Shakespeare Ensemble since 2007, creating a vibrant community of Shakespeare Ensemble alumni, many of which have continued with HPAC programming through college graduation.

Watch Past Performances: