Copy
CYS 2014: A Year in Review and Upcoming Events
View this email in your browser








 

 

A Special Message from CYS Board President, Louis Fantasia


Dear Friends and Supporters of Chicago Youth Shakespeare:

I have been lucky enough in my life to be present at the creation of several important Shakespeare organizations, including the Shakespeare Globe Centre in London, and Shakespeare at the Huntington, the teacher training institute of the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in Southern California. In those thirty-plus years, I have never seen an organization dedicated to education and outreach create as large an impact in as brief a time as Chicago Youth Shakespeare has done.

Working with partners such as CPS, suburban school districts and independent private schools such as The British School of Chicago and Francis W. Parker School; as well as The Hairpin Arts Center, The Chicago Park District, and most significantly the Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier, CYS continues to bring the excitement, joy and challenge of performing Shakespeare’s great plays to hundreds of students across the greater Chicago area.

More important, it has done so in a manner that is vibrant, exciting and rigorous, challenging students and their teachers to be their best and most creative in an open, fresh and welcoming manner. This is Shakespeare for the Twenty-first Century: accessible, inclusive and encompassing, without being patronizing, remote or alien. What I appreciate most about the ethos of the Chicago Youth Shakespeare is that it understands what it really means to “respect the text” - that is, to make the encounter with Shakespeare’s language, for students, actors and audiences, come alive as if the words were being spoken for the very first time!

I want to thank Founding Director Manon Spadaro for having the vision and courage to put such a program into practice, and I especially want to thank all of you - each and every one of you - who, as teachers, students, parents, donors, friends, fellow Board members and patrons, have joined in this enterprise of, as Hamlet says, “great pitch and moment!” The ripple effect of Chicago Youth Shakespeare's programs will go on to change the lives of thousands of Chicagoans of all ages for a long time to come. Thank you!

An overview of CYS’s accomplishments this past year is below. Please consider supporting CYS generously in the coming months with your donations, contributions, talent and time. I look forward to seeing you at their performances, workshops and upcoming events in 2015!
Best wishes for a Happy New Year!

Sincerely,

Louis Fantasia
Acting President, Chicago Youth Shakespeare Board of Directors

CYS 2014 | A LOOK BACK AT A VERY BIG YEAR


Chicago Youth Shakespeare Ensemble (CYSE)

The Chicago Youth Shakespeare Ensemble (CYSE), is a performing Shakespeare company of high school actors.  The mission of the youth 
ensemble program is to build community among young people across  demographic boundaries through their work as an artistic ensemble. CYSE students explore various acting techniques and methods for “unpacking” and personalizing the text as they rehearse a Shakespeare play for performances at local theaters and cultural centers. 
In addition to public performances of their work, 
youth ensemble students participate in special peer-to-peer outreach presentations at area high schools and other community venues.
Fall Session 2013-'14 | CYSE 1.0 
In November of 2013, CYS launched our very first Youth Ensemble program (CYSE 1.0), with 15 high school actors from over from all over the Chicago area. Their work together culminated in performances of Shakespeare's Macbeth at The Lincoln Park Cultural Center, as well as outreach shows at CPS high schools: Phoenix Military Academy and Urban Prep Academy, Englewood.
Summer Session 2014 | CYSE 2.0
CYS welcomed in a new crew of high school actors, (CYSE 2.0) to join our 6-week Shakespeare intensive last summer. They presented Shakespeare's As You Like It at The Hairpin Arts Center, participated in outreach shows at The Piccolo Theatre and The Admiral on the Lake, and performed "in-the-park" at Unity Park in Logan Square and Wrigley Square in Chicago's Millennium Park.
Fall Session 2014 | CYSE 3.0
This past month marked the ending of our third Youth Ensemble program (CYSE 3.0), with performances of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet at the Gorilla Tango Theatre, Bucktown and The Charnel House in Logan Square, as well as CPS outreach shows at Theodore Roosevelt and Lakeview High Schools.
 
Meet Youth Ensemble Director, Jeremy Ohringer 
Director and teaching artist, Jeremy Ohringer is a graduate of Skidmore College, where he directed Virginia Woolf's Orlando adapted by Sarah Ruhl, Quoi: An Ensemble Moment of 8-10 Actors, Spring Awakening, and Rawhead and Bloodybones, among other productions and workshops. Since moving back to Chicago in 2013, he served as assistant director  of 4,000 Miles directed by Kimberly Senior at Northlight Theatre, and directed the premier of Who Rowed Across Oceans, a play by Danielle Littman, which travelled to the Ediburgh Fringe Festival after opening in Chicago. Currently Jeremy is directing a production of Spring Awakeing at The Charnel House and serving as assistant director on Endgame at The Hypocrites Theatre.  As an educator, Jeremy has worked with the National High School Institute "Cherubs" program at Northwestern University, American Theater Company, Global Voices Initiative, Actors Training Center, Northlight, Emerald City and Steppenwolf Theatre. 

Spring 2014 | Battle of the Bard & CYS Workshops 

On Saturday April 26, nine high school teams from throughout the Chicago area gathered at Francis W. Parker School for the inaugural Battle of the Bard Shakespeare Slam. The goal of Battle of the Bard is to promote student achievement and build community across demographic boundaries through Shakespeare performance, friendly competition and team spirit. Student teams participated in three rounds of Shakespeare performance for a chance to win $1000 to support arts programming at their school.
Chicago Youth Shakespeare offered multiple workshops for Chicago area high school students and their teachers in 2014. Each workshop was designed and taught by members of Chicago’s Backroom Shakespeare Project and focused on various aspects of Shakespeare performance, including voice, movement, stage combat and adapting text. CYS Workshops offer hands-on learning to high school students, and provide teachers with methods for bringing Shakespeare to life in the classroom. 

June 2014 | Shakespeare Immersion Week  

The British School of Chicago

 During the week of June 2, all Year 7 and 8 students at The British School of Chicago were excused from regular classes in order to participate in a week-long Shakespeare Immersion, designed and facilitated by Chicago Youth Shakespeare. Workshops for this program provided British School of Chicago students with a differentiated learning experience through Shakespeare performance. CYS assembled teaching artists from Steppenwolf Young Adult Program, The Shakespeare Project of Chicago, A Red Orchard Theater, and The Backroom Shakespeare Project, among others to help students unpack Shakespeare’s language and explore characters, themes and performance techniques. Their week-long experience culminated in a performance for friends and family at The British School of Chicago.

CYS 2015 | A LOOK AHEAD AT UPCOMING EVENTS

Battle of the Bard 2015 

CYS is thrilled to be teaming up with 
Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier for Battle of the Bard 2015!   LEARN MORE   
 

BSC Immersion Week 2.0 

CYS will be returning to The British School of Chicago in June 2015 for another full week of Shakespeare with Year 7 & 8 students!

CYSE 4.0  Summer Session 2015     June 22 - August 2
Auditions for the 2015 Summer Youth Ensemble Program are coming up soon!
Email 
info@chicagoyouthshakespeare.org for information on how to register.

Thank you for making 2014 an amazing year, and for helping CYS continue to "grow [and] prosper!" 

LIKE us on Facebook...FOLLOW us on Twitter...VISIT us online...
Facebook
Twitter
Website
And please consider making your tax-deductible contribution 
before the end of the year! 

 

DONATE NOW


Chicago Youth Shakespeare is a 501(c)3 charitable organization. All donations
are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law. 
Copyright © 2014 Chicago Youth Shakespeare, Inc., All rights reserved.


unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences 

Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp