The Colorado Shakespeare Festival will bring live, professional Shakespeare performances to all 64 Colorado counties in the next decade, the group announced today. The $3.2 million Shakespeare Across Colorado initiative will reach an estimated 180,000 audience members by 2028.
Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s professional actors will crisscross the state, in part, because they believe exposing people to Shakespeare can be a transformational experience, teaching people about empathy, teamwork and even communication.
“We want to share Shakespeare with every county in Colorado, because access to the arts should not be dictated by geography,” said Amanda Giguere, director of outreach for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. “Shakespeare is for everyone, everywhere.”
The Colorado Shakespeare Festival, a professional theatre company in association with the University of Colorado Boulder, was founded in 1958, making it the nation’s second-oldest Shakespeare festival. The group’s continued vision leans on existing research linking live Shakespeare performances to improved student engagement, language skills and a range of other positive outcomes.
Funding for Shakespeare Across Colorado–expected to come from a combination of grants, corporate sponsorships and public gifts– helps support artists’ wages, travel expenses, costumes and other equipment.
Shakespeare Across Colorado programming will feature a combination of performances in public spaces and schools, including Shakespeare & Violence Prevention classroom visits.
Founded in 2011 in partnership with the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, the Shakespeare & Violence Prevention program combines real-world research and abbreviated Shakespeare performances to teach young students about bullying, empathy, teamwork and up-stander behavior.
“It’s been incredibly helpful and powerful for the festival because we have legitimate scientific research backing up our approach to this play and the workshop curriculum,” said Giguere. “For the center, it’s useful for them to be connected to us because it’s so much more effective when you have a charismatic actor in the room teaching kids directly.”
Shakespeare & Violence Prevention has already reached nearly 100,000 students at 264 schools. In the 2018-19 academic year alone, the tour has made stops in 12 counties: Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Douglas, Denver, Eagle, Garfield, Gunnison, Jefferson, Larimer and Weld.