Professional Development
"The workshops that I attended were well organized, relevant to my daily lessons, and provided practical strategies for teaching." -- local teacher
Westport Country Playhouse is committed to providing educational opportunities for local teachers and arts administrators. We work to create educational programs that connect our shows to literature, history, music history and performance, and other subjects in local school curricula.
Professional Development workshops at Westport Country Playhouse are open to all teachers in the region, in addition to arts administrators, staff, and home school educators/parents.
During 2012, Westport Country Playhouse is planning two professional development workshops for teachers, designed to work in conjunction with our production of A Raisin In The Sun.
2012 workshops are currently in development, and will occur in the fall of 2012, dates TBA.
Past workshops
Folger Shakespeare Library, repository of the world's largest collection of Shakespeare's works, will present a half-day workshop based on its innovative Shakespeare Set Free book series. It will offer an interdisciplinary, text-based, and performance-based approach to teaching Shakespeare to students of all abilities in grades 3 to 12. The Folger's approach maintains that the study of Shakespeare is possible and rewarding for all students and that the best way for students to understand Shakespeare is to engage with the texts by performing scenes from the plays. The Folger's practical and active approach to teaching Shakespeare gives teachers the means to help students own the language; the performance aspect provides a structure of collaboration to let students own the play.
Presented by The Acting Company, NYC
The Acting Company, America's foremost touring company of Shakespeare, will present a half-day long workshop for teachers based on their 'Shakespeare for Teachers' program. The Acting Company's educational approach mirrors the approach of the company itself: to celebrate language and the deepen creative exploration. This workshop with use Twelfth Night, or What You Will as a starting point in an exploration of role-playing, text analysis, writing-in-role and other drama-based techniques. The workshop aims to provide teachers with a repertoire of exercises designed to give students new entry-points to literature.
Westport Country Playhouse is an approved CEU provider in the State of Connecticut.
