Academic Enrichment Grant

 2012-2013 Project Summary

Terri McComb

Mayer Elementary School • Mayer, AZ

The project is a collaboration between Mayer Elementary School (K-8) and the Arizona Theatre Company’s (ACT) Artist-in-Residence program. The ACT program will provide preliminary activities to ease students into Shakespeare’s language, characters, theme, and plot as well as encourage them to use their bodies, minds, and voices. Students will use their new skills to study Shakespeare’s plays A Midsummer Night’s Dream (7th grade) and Much Ado About Nothing (8th grade). The program addresses Arizona State Standards while giving students the opportunity to analyze both content and character. Students will learn how to decipher the clues that Shakespeare left in his plays for actors to use as they approach the text and the characters. They will then use these clues to act out key scenes from Shakespeare’s plays. They will develop characters, improve language skills, and explore theatre techniques such as staging, props, and costuming. Students will write and perform scenes in contemporary English to clarify the plot.

Back to Project Summaries