LSU Teams With Legendary Theatre to Spark Interest in Shakespeare

Tim Carroll, Director of the Globe Theatre, lectures at LSU

June 11, 2007 — “All the world is a stage.” – That famous line from William Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” takes on a whole new meaning through an LSU initiative to help current and future teachers make their class materials more exciting to students. Teaming with the staff of the Globe Theatre in London, LSU is bringing the stage of Shakespeare’s legendary plays to the world through the spirit of interaction and international cooperation.

The goal is to improve educational quality in Louisiana’s middle and high schools. The LSU College of Arts & Sciences and the Globe Theatre’s “Globe Education” program are now working together in an effort called the Louisiana Shakespeare Project. The project’s goal is to energize student appreciation of the life and works of the world’s greatest playwright. The partnership gives students insight into the time and conditions under which Shakespeare wrote and produced his timeless plays. Globe Theatre staff introduces students to the particulars of the Globe stage and the history of the venue, allowing a greater understanding of the work to take root in students’ minds.

For the last two years, Malcolm Richardson, Susannah Monta, and Bainard Cowan, all faculty members in the LSU English Department, have been working with the staff of the Globe to develop the program. The project has developed beyond its original focus of academic exchanges of LSU faculty and Globe personnel to include unique educational opportunities for teachers in Louisiana elementary, middle, and high schools and their students.

LSU English professors Malcolm Robinson and Susannah Monta are building international partnerships to bring the art of Shakespeare to life in Louisiana.

The collaboration between the Globe and LSU began in 2005 when the Globe’s education director Patrick Spottiswode, invited Monta to be an academic consultant and guest lecturer at the Globe. LSU then hosted the Globe’s current director, Tim Carroll, for an animated and entertaining lecture at LSU in April 2006. During a visit later that year to LSU, Spottiswode and LSU faculty discussed the possibility of involving Louisiana educators and students in the Globe’s education outreach programs, which reach nearly 100,000 people each year.

This new development will involve the LSU English secondary education program in significant ways: Richardson is collaborating with Sue Weinstein, the director of the English secondary education program, to offer area teachers a five-day seminar. This seminar, which pairs LSU faculty and members of the Globe staff, will prepare teachers to participate in video conferencing and other activities with the Globe Company beginning in fall 2007. The two have also proposed sending as many as twelve teachers from area high schools to London in summer 2008 to participate in education programs at the Globe. These teachers will, in turn, provide valuable training for LSU student teachers, as well as implement education projects in their schools and classrooms.

Weinstein sees great potential for collaboration with the Globe. “This project uses the richness of Shakespeare to spur learning in all areas,” she said.

Richardson envisions a vital program in Baton Rouge that will be modeled on the Globe’s other successful programs in the United States., which began with the “Shakespeare Lives!” program for teachers in the Winston-Salem, North Carolina, community. The North Carolina program, which is in its ninth year, includes summer trips to London for groups of students who train at the Globe Theatre and a classroom project in which each class “adopts” a Globe actor, who updates the class weekly on the theatre’s activities. Each group of participating students share in the process of producing a play, from the first rehearsal to the final performance.

“It’s as much about teaching as it is about Shakespeare,” Richardson explains.

Richardson, Monta, and Cowan recently received a two-year grant from the Louisiana Board of Regents to begin a multi-faceted program that will include working with the Globe Company. The initial collaboration will provide an institute for teachers, a speaker series to bring more Globe personnel to LSU, and a visit to the campus by the troupe, Actors from the London Stage. Richardson is hopeful that the success of this phase of the project will encourage additional support, and allow an even greater connection between the university community and the London stage.

If you would like to take center stage by supporting the Louisiana Shakespeare Project, contact Director of Development Bryan Landry with the LSU College of Arts and Sciences, (225) 578-6441 or e-mail, blandry@lsu.edu.

Forever LSU thanks you for your continued financial support of our students, faculty and programs. Our goal is to raise $750 million by 2010. Please visit www.foreverlsu.org for more information on how we're progressing and how every Tiger can help.

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Michelle Spielman
LSU Office of Public Affairs