Tennessee Shakespeare Co. - 2024-2025 Playbill

43 2024-2025: SEASON SEVENTEEN THE ROMEO AND JULIET PROJECT Launched over a decade ago in response to the Memphis mayor’s request for solutions to teenage armed violence, our celebrated Project inspires students to get on their feet and play with Shakespeare’s text. Though experiencing the characters’ real-time decisions in times of crisis, students have the opportunity to rehearse alternate responses to the characters’ decisions, confronting youth-on-youth violence, suicidal ideation, and grief. The Project consists of three in-class experiences called playshops and a 90-minute production of Romeo and Juliet that tours to their school, meeting students where they are. Participating students’ ELA grades rise by at least a half-letter, and 90% of them report they now see Shakespeare as more relevant than before. The Project is made possible, in part, by International Paper and the Tennessee Arts Commission. Cheleen Sugar, Irene Keeney, and Marquis Dijon Archuleta, Romeo and Juliet , 2024. “The teachers-actors do a wonderful job engaging students in the play and helping them consider how the conflicts the characters face are relevant to their own lives. The kids always have a wonderful experience, and it resulted in approximately half a letter grade increase after the Project.” - Jason Middlekauf, Houston High School teacher