Lets talk
about...

A series of lively and insightful conversations
with Shakespeare scholars.

San Francisco Shakespeare Festival is dedicated to arts education, using our programs to foster a life-long appreciation of learning and the arts. In 2020 we adapted many of these programs to an online model, and now we’re excited to enter a new era offering both virtual and (to the extent public health protocols allow) in-person options.

Our education programs fall into three categories, and between them there’s something for people of all ages, interests, and experience levels:

Shakespeare Camps

Day Camps and After-School Programs

Your Classroom

Residencies, Playshops, and Shakespeare on Tour

Our Classroom

Classes and Playshops

Scroll down for more details and links to our various programs.

Meet our current roster of Teaching Artists, or if you’re interested in becoming one, Join Us!
Learn about our Education Program’s Values, Ethics, and Aesthetics below.
Don’t miss our Shakespeare on Tour program, which centers around a live performance but also offers optional educational playshop programs as well.
For further details or to schedule or customize our offerings to fit your needs, contact us at education@sfshakes.org or 415-558-0888

A lively series of discussions

Let's talk about
As You Like It
recorded Panel discussion

We’re delighted to share a recording of this fascinating panel conversation (that took place on March 25), featuring Dr. Will Tosh, Head of Research at Shakespeare’s Globe, London in conversation with SF Shakes Artistic Director Carla Pantoja and hosted by SF Shakes Board Member Dan Rabinowitz.

Dan, Carla, and Will touched on a wide variety of the remarkable features and the artistic and historical context of this wonderful comedy. They see it as a remarkable social commentary that is just as relevant today as it was in 1599, as Shakespeare’s great implicit feminist statement, and as a play that touches on and implicates gender issues more broadly in ways that resonate with our audiences.

Let's talk about
The Tempest
June 17 @ noon via zoom

Our next conversation series features this summers’ Free Shakes in the Park Director Rotimi Agababiaka.

Board Member Dan Rabinowitz, and SF Shakes Artistic Director Carla Pantoja will engage in lively and insightful discussion with Rotimi Agbabiaka, who will share his directorial perspectives on this summer’s Free Shakespeare in the Park production of The Tempest and his intent to highlight the themes of forgiveness and recovering from loss.

Let's talk about
The Tempest
July 8 @ noon via zoom

The July 8 conversation features Dr. Farah Karim-Cooper, the incoming Head of The Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DC.

Board Member Dan Rabinowitz will host this third discussion, in which he and SF Shakes Artistic Director Carla Pantoja will engage in conversation about The Tempest with Dr. Farah Karim-Cooper. The discussion will explore and examine her deeply thoughtful analysis of race, gender and otherness in The Tempest, along with a radical reappraisal of society in Elizabethan London, the backdrop from which Shakespeare’s plays emerged and against which they were presented.

shakespeare camps

Study Shakespeare in a fun, supportive atmosphere, learn the skills needed to perform the plays, and make new friends with similar interests! We offer Shakespeare Camp programs for ages 7-18, in both virtual and in-person formats.

your classroom

Building upon the foundation of your classroom, we facilitate the artistic and personal growth of each student while transforming the group into a fun, engaging, interactive ensemble. We offer a range of options from multiple-session Residencies to specialized Workshops and Add-Ons, with virtual or in-person instruction.

our classroom

Voice. Creative Writing. Monologue. Physical Theater. Stage Combat. Clowning. There’s always something new to explore in our classes for students of all ages and experience, with our online and in-person classes.

Education Program
Values, Ethics, and Aesthetics

Values

1. We believe in…connection. Connection is at the heart of theatrical practice, and human existence. Shakespeare offers many means through which we can connect, including language, rhythm, feeling, story, character, movement, and idea. The goal of our educational programming and productions is to foster connection between participants.

2. We believe in…embracing paradox. As we believe that Shakespeare’s works can be used for artistic, cultural, personal, interpersonal, emotional, intellectual, and ethical development, we also contend with their historical and contemporary roles in colonial and white supremicist structures. We enjoy the gifts of Shakespeare while interrogating its problems. We understand that these plays are rooted in a specific context, and grapple with how to apply them to our multicultural context.

3. We believe in…accessibility. We recognize the diversity of human composition and experience, and endeavor to create practices and programs that are accessible to all who might want to engage. We are committed to an adaptable mindset that will allow for continuing growth as an organization. We heed, in particular, communities and individuals who have been marginalized or underserved.

4. We believe in… stories. Stories help us explore what it means to be human. They serve as a passing down of our (sometimes collective) truths, lessons learned, as well as continued growth. Self and societal reflection can make us more aware, empathetic, expressive, and balanced as people.

Ethics

5. We believe in…process. While performance provides a structure through which learning occurs, learning is the aim, not producing. We define success by the enjoyment and growth of our participants, not through a “final” polished product. We recognize that there is no point at which we are finished, that learning is always ongoing even after the class or performance has happened.

6. We believe in…what works. Rather than thinking and acting in terms of ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ ‘right’ or ‘wrong,’ we concentrate on what works. We don’t assume that what has been working will continue to work, nor that what works for some people works for everyone. We are committed to an actively self-reflective process of making our programming and organization work.

7. We believe in…transparency. Everyone who works and engages with us has the right to know why decisions are being made. While some information needs to be protected for reasons of safety and privacy, we understand that transparency is essential to create access and break down hierarchies of privilege. We commit to not ‘gatekeep.’

8. We believe in…community. Theatre is a collaborative art form. Theatre is both a response to and a creation of culture. Our practice of theatre is rooted in communal participation, is a partnership between our practitioners and our many intersecting communities throughout the Bay Area and globally.

aesthetics

9. We believe in…empowered casting. Inclusive, identity-conscious casting is a tenet of all casting decisions in our camps and productions. Directors examine their own biases and seek perspectives unfamiliar to them as they cast. SF Shakes commits to not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, color, religion, gender, gender expression, size, age, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, or any other identity.

10. We believe in…adapting Shakespeare. We recognize that the surviving texts of Shakespeare’s plays come to us fragmented, amalgamated, and altered, the result of various editors, collaborators, and publishers. They are living texts. We adapt freely, with artistry and intention, so as to work from a script that best serves our needs, context, and population.

11. We believe in…embodied storytelling. We choose theatre as a form that embodies language, and tells stories through a spectrum of tangibility and abstraction. We consider all the tools at our disposal, and choose the ones that best fit our artistic and educational objectives.

Written by: Bidalia Albanese, Rebecca Ennals, Evan Held, Charlie Lavaroni, Ryan Lee, Regina Morones, Amy Lizardo Ryan, Ayelet Schrek, Michaela Stewart, Joshua Waterstone

Lets talk
about...

A lively series of discussions

Let's talk about
As You Like It
recorded Panel discussion

Let's talk about
The Tempest
June 17 @ noon via zoom

Let's talk about
The Tempest
July 8 @ noon via zoom

shakespeare camps

your classroom

our classroom

Education Program
Values, Ethics, and Aesthetics

Values

Ethics

aesthetics

Privacy Policy

Website by Neal Ormond

Lets talk about...

A lively series of discussions

Let's talk about As You Like It recorded Panel discussion

Let's talk about The Tempest June 17 @ noon via zoom

Let's talk about The Tempest July 8 @ noon via zoom

shakespeare camps

your classroom

our classroom

Education Program Values, Ethics, and Aesthetics

Values

Ethics

aesthetics

Privacy Policy

Website by Neal Ormond

Lets talk
about...

Let's talk about
As You Like It
recorded Panel discussion

Let's talk about
The Tempest
June 17 @ noon via zoom

Let's talk about
The Tempest
July 8 @ noon via zoom

Education Program
Values, Ethics, and Aesthetics