Stage2School Workshops

Each year CSC offers a number of add-on workshops designed for schools planning to attend our Stage2 Student Matinees in the spring. This year’s Stage2 show is A Midsummer Night’s Dream running March 14-21, 2024 at the Strand Theatre in Dorchester.

We are also able to offer workshop options to schools unable to attend our matinee performances. You do not need to attend a Student Matinee performance in order to book a workshop. Workshops are available year round and can be tailored to any Shakespearean play your school may be studying this year.

CSC’s curriculum-based workshops are tailored to each school’s specific needs. Run-time per workshop can vary by school schedule, typically 45-90 minutes depending on your class period length, and most school visits contain 2-3 classroom workshops per day. Workshops tie to the performance with lesson plans and objectives that range from textual analysis, critical response, and comprehension, to public speaking, movement and the exploration of social dynamics. Each workshop concludes with prompts for additional reflection and learning, using students’ writing and critical thinking skills.

For the 2023-2024 school year, all workshops can be delivered through in person visits or virtually via your school’s desired platform. Please note all CSC teaching artists and actors are fully vaccinated and must undergo a health screening to attend in person work. Additional covid-19 safety requirements from your school for visiting individuals can be discussed when booking your workshop.

Questions? Please email us at education@commshakes.org

2023-2024 Workshop Offerings: 

• A Midsummer Night’s Dream Theme Workshop: an overview of the play’s themes, including Love and Friendship, Competition, Familial relationships, Power and Dreams, among others. Workshop add-ons include status exercises, character creation games, and even action/objective exercises using Laban movement efforts.
• How Verse Creates a Character: a deep dive with iambic pentameter, showing how A Midsummer Night’s Dream actors create their characters with clues inside of Shakespeare’s verse. Emphasis is placed on the young lovers’ shared lines, rhyming couplets, and the use of the familiar “thee/thine.”
• Public Speaking and Voice: uses the text to enhance students’ public speaking skills, including understanding and overcoming stage fright, breath, enunciation, projection, and the use of rhetorical devices like antithesis and lists/ladders. Students will try vocal warm-up exercises and games to get their bodies and voices ready for public speaking.
• Workshop à la carte: CSC will work with you to create an offering to fit your school’s specific curriculum/needs for A Midsummer Night’s Dream or another Shakespeare title.

Interested schools can contact us about workshops by submitting a form using the button below:

Additionally, schools wishing to apply for discounted/free workshops may use the form below to apply through our SAVOR program:

School SAVOR Program is a Commonwealth Shakespeare Company initiative that receives generous funding from sponsors to provide student tickets to schools facing extreme economic hardships. SAVOR stands for Subsidized Art is a Value & Our Right. We firmly believe that art, and theater in particular, should be savored live, early, and often. We hope to break down barriers to theater, and show students art that is created for them.