The Young Shakespeareans
Transforming Futures through the Power of Arts Education
OUR METHOD
The Young Shakespeareans (TYS) cultivates the creativity, courage, confidence, and career pathways of youth, onsite at their schools in historically underserved communities. From second grade through college, we use Shakespeare’s works to weave applied social-emotional learning with rigorous academics in a challenging and engaging experience. Our students brave the stage in reimagined, culturally relevant, high-production quality performances, discovering their voices and developing the skills to thrive in school and in life as they transform themselves and their communities.
OUR VISION
A learning community employing theatre arts to maximize children's academic, social, and aesthetic potential;
Program delivery onsite at neighborhood schools leading to increased family access, student attendance, and neighborhood commitment and pride;
Increased student compassion, self-awareness, and social-emotional literacy through analysis
and understanding of dramatic literature and universal themes;
Cooperative participation of students, parents, faculty, administrators, and neighbors of all
ages and socio-economic groups;
Public commitment supporting high expectations for all children regardless of ethnicity, origin, native language, or socio-economic group;
Increased public awareness of the tremendous value in historically marginalized communities.
OUR HISTORY
"The streets are waiting for our kids."
We hear this too often from too many neighborhood residents whose daily lives are disproportionately impacted by poverty, homelessness, and gang violence.
THE BEGINNING
In 2010, our Founder witnessed how just 12 weeks of Theatre Arts at Nevin Avenue Elementary School in South Los Angeles produced an inspired performance of "A Midsummer Night's Dream", drastically transforming a group of 4th+5th graders, their school, and their entire neighborhood. It was stunning and unmistakable.
The program clearly brought value for the children, anchored and lifted the neighborhood. Realizing the potential to also attract support for South Los Angeles from the broader community, our Founder developed and piloted a curriculum to provide early and formative intervention, raise students’ awareness of their innate talents, and create a positive peer community where they could safely explore their potential and expand their sense of possibility.
In 2017, Nevin was joined by West Vernon Avenue Elementary School, and in 2019 when alumni from both schools found themselves together at John Adams Middle School, they lobbied their Principal to have TYS there. Normandie Avenue Elementary School rounded out TYS' presence in South LA.
THE PANDEMIC YEARS (2020-22)
Just as our elementary and middle school students were deep into their 2020 Spring programs, COVID imposed an abrupt and unwelcome halt bringing plenty of confusion & crying. Within 9 days TYS quickly pivoted to online instruction for our middle school students so they could complete their program, but unfortunately privacy issues prohibited online interaction with our elementary schoolers. In May, TYS' 6th thru 8th graders at John Adams Middle School performed an impressive "Romeo & Juliet" while quarantined in their homes. Intuiting that the pandemic would not pass quickly, TYS spent June through December developing a program to keep our students engaged with learning and with each other in the coming year.
TYS' innovative VIRTUAL PROGRAM launched in January 2021. We hand-delivered green screens, lighting, art supplies, and microphones to our middle-school students so they could enjoy online instruction in Performance, Scenic Design, Costume Design, and Music. At the end of May, they performed remotely from their homes on a UNIFIED VIRTUAL STAGE with Scenics and Music created by their classmates. And, in a WORLD-WIDE FIRST, they virtually wore Costumes designed and drawn by their classmates that were animated by a new technology in beta from Snap.com whose Official Lens Creators from across the globe volunteered their time and talent to help create what was previously "impossible"!
The dregs of COVID demanded continued agility and determination for TYS' productions of "Macbeth" in Spring 2022. TYS' 6th & 7th graders at John Adams learned and performed remotely from their classroom desks backed by green construction paper. Our John Adams 8th graders joined students from Los Angeles Academy of Arts & Enterprise (LAAAE) in WESTLAKE (TYS' first High Schoolers) to enjoy the SHAKESPEARE CENTER's extraordinary gift of stage space and WORKFORCE contracts. Ongoing COVID restrictions limited socially-distanced audiences to a very small number, so the masked students served as crew and pantomimed action to their lines pre-recorded in a make-shift sound studio, resulting in an impressive short film. It was a true adventure!
BACK ON SITE IN 2023 (but only in one school)
- TYS launched its CAREER PATHWAYS PROGRAM hiring a production team of TYS High School Alumni to conceive and design a new production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" for West Vernon Avenue 4th & 5th graders. Charged with selecting a context consistent with their heritage, they chose to set it in 1920's Post-Revolutionary Mexico, and created a soundtrack, scenics, and costumes that celebrated their families' native cultures;
- In our first SUMMER PROGRAM, we EXPANDED INTO WESTLAKE to launch SHAKESPEAREAN SPORTS for middle school students at the Los Angeles Academy for Arts & Enterprise who learned the disciplines of staged swordplay and hand-to-hand action.
2025/26 BEGAN WITH A BANG!
- Josh Groban of the Find Your Light Foundation selected TYS to be featured in a CNN interview with Elex Michaelson highlighting the importance of Arts Education;
- A new production added to TYS' repertoire - a frothy "Much Ado About Nothing" set in 1960's Detroit, with a Motown soundtrack.
COMING IN 2027!
A reimagination of "Macbeth" set in 1500's Mesoamerica during the wars between the Indigenous Chichimeca and Cortez's Spanish Conquistadores.
In the face of today's challenges, everyone at TYS continues to create, strive, and thrive !