Horace Mann - Summer 2016 - 10

Horace Mann School and England's Royal Shakespeare Company HM, the RSC and transforming the teaching of Shakespeare Horace Mann School's embrace of its RSC partnership stems, in part, from the very reasons that Shakespeare's oeuvre continues to resonate and remains an important part of school curricula in the U.K., the U.S. and worldwide. Dr. Casdin posits that "if the value of the plays ... is not understood in the same way here as in England, there is still a feeling that they are important-representing something about what it means to be human, in moving and thoughtprovoking ways. Just look at the number of Shakespeare plays produced each year in N.Y.C. alone, and you have a sense that they are part of the public consciousness in some primary way, despite the fact that the language is now viewed as difficult and even a barrier to understanding," said Dr. Casdin. "Even though many could not tell you exactly why they value Shakespeare, there is something that draws us to the stories, to the conflicts, to the problems he develops in the tragedies, comedies, and histories." Thus, if Shakespeare continues to compel, it is important for all who learn this literature to learn it well. To this end, the HM-RSC partnership has evolved over the year-and-a-half that RSC educators have been interacting with HM students and teachers, and in the dozen or so visits that Gould, RSC Lead Practitioner Chris White, Education Associate Practitioner Rachel Gartside, Education Associate Tracy Irish and several RSC educator/ actors have made to HM. In their first two visits, in early March and late April 2015, the RSC team spent two weeks at HM introducing the Company's Stand Up for Shakespeare techniques to students and teachers in eighth, ninth and 11th-grade English classes. Each visit culminated in a presentation of a filmed RSC production-"Henry IV, Part I" in March, and "Love's Labour Lost" in April 2015. To the delight of the students, each production included in its cast one of the actors then in residence at HM: RSC cast member Leigh Quinn in the first, and Oliver Lynes in the second. Equally exciting was the opportunity HM students were given, following the screening, to ask questions of the director and an actor from each play, with Gould texting the questions during a live-streamed 10 Horace Mann Magazine Summer 2016 conversation. "Can the director take liberties interpreting Shakespeare's plays?" and "What point is Shakespeare making in writing a play within a play?" were among the students' many insightful questions. In April 2016 HM's eighth graders had the opportunity to see the RSC's live production of "Henry V" during the Company's Brooklyn Academy of Music residency. The RSC teacher workshops that HM hosted coincided with an intensive RSC-led workshop for HM students and students from area schools. On the last day of both workshops the students showcased the RSC techniques they had practiced, demonstrating for the teachers how powerful this learning-acting technique can be. Despite the enthusiastic reception the first phase of HM's three-year and possibly longer relationship with the RSC received, Dr. Casdin felt that students and teachers could realize greater benefit from the partnership, if he adjusted how it was run. "After the RSC's first visits I spoke with teachers at the Ohio State program. They stressed that constant contact with the RSC would give this work a more lasting impact on our school," Dr. Casdin said. "A lasting impact is what we were hoping for. Our Middle Division is already moving in the direction of more active learning and active problem solving. The Upper Division was hungry for this. Shakespeare is now in place throughout our Lower Division, beginning in Kindergarten." Together with Gould and "with great support from Dr. Kelly" Dr. Casdin spent the summer of 2015 redefining the HM-RSC partnership. The idea emerged to form a corps of HM teachers to become expert practitioners of the RSC's Stand Up for Shakespeare rehearsal room method, so that they could transmit it, not only to their students, but to teachers in every HM grade. This teaching corps would help lead Horace Mann School into a deeper and more lasting connection with the RSC's pedagogical practice-a connection strong enough to serve as a model for learning Shakespeare, and for learning itself, throughout its students' lives. In addition, in HM's continuing commitment to community outreach, Dr. Casdin said that HM will become a hub school for RSC training in the coming year, sharing this work with Bronx-area public schools. photo by Jasmin Ortiz State University, to have access to the teaching expertise offered by our RSC colleagues it is also a privilege to be able to share this resource with the greater community, including Summer on the Hill, and colleagues throughout the area. "Walking into a Summer on the Hill classroom to see students enamored with Shakespeare, or hearing from colleagues at other schools how they are applying what they learned in our RSC workshops to their teaching has been especially gratifying," Dr. Kelly said. The Head of School is also encouraged by the program's reception within the HM community, as evidenced by letters he's received from several parents. One, from the parents of a Middle Division student, expressed gratitude for all Dr. Kelly and HM "have done to integrate the Shakespeare curriculum into HM," continuing: "THANK YOU for enlivening Shakespeare in HM and for making all the amazing resources for the theater and the arts at HM possible." RSC Lead Practitioner Chris White demonstrates how movement can impact interpretations of Shakespeare's dialogue.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Horace Mann - Summer 2016