April 14, 2016

Could the powerful words of William Shakespeare end violence in schools?

Since 2011, the Colorado Shakespeare Festival (CSF) and CU-Boulder’s Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence (CSPV) have worked together to present annual school tours, where CSF actors perform a truncated Shakespeare play and lead workshops to discuss bullying, violence and unhealthy relationships in the Bard’s writing. The performances and workshops receive funding from CU-Boulder's Office for Outreach and Engagement, the CU-Boulder College of Arts and Sciences, the Boulder City Council and other organizations. 

“The actors teach the students about things they can do to prevent bullying in schools and create a healthier climate,” said Laurie Keith, who works for CSPV. “They use theater games and role-playing to help get across some of these really important messages.”

This spring, three actors rehearsed and presented a Wild West-themed “Taming of the Shrew." While the performances and workshops are finished for this school year, CSF is currently booking fall 2016 tours that will feature the same play. 

This classic comedy is about a man named Petruchio who persuades a stubborn, irritable Kate to marry him and learns a few things about himself in the process. But Keith, who serves as the show’s director, wanted to put a unique spin on it. 

“In the past, we’ve always done productions with men and women,” she said. “This year, we decided to cast all females. We were excited to look at how a woman playing Petruchio could possibly change the dynamic of the relationship between Petruchio and Kate.” In a traditional “Taming of the Shrew” performance, audiences will walk away believing Petruchio has “tamed” Kate. But when Petruchio is played by a woman, Keith said, audiences might start to wonder whether Kate has in turn tamed Petruchio.

“Kate and Petruchio are two people who have behaved badly their whole lives, acting as bullies toward other people, toward siblings,” Keith said. “And yet, by the end, they both have learned how to be nice and have a healthy relationship. So we hope that’ll lead to kids asking, ‘How can we stop bullying each other and become more of a team?’”

The violence prevention campaign doesn’t end after the workshop. CSPV works with an organization called Safe2Tell, an anonymous tip line for youth who see or experience violent behavior, to measure the effectiveness of their Shakespearean campaigns. 

Thanks to Safe2Tell, Keith can proudly proclaim their school visits seem to be working.

“We’ve been able to see that the schools we visit are the schools whose students have logged more Safe2Tell calls over the course of a school year,” she said.

Since 2011, CSF in the Schools performed in 220 schools and reached 72,978 students across Colorado. During the 2015-16 school year alone, 5,114 students participated in violence prevention workshops. Nearly 27,000 students have participated over the course of the program's history.

For more information about the program or to request a performance and workshop in your school, visit the CSF in the Schools website.

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