Our plan
Last year, an actor friend and I were asked by the National Arts Centre of Canada to create a program to explore Shakespeare with elementary school children. The results were wonderful: autistic children were performing monologues, a recent immigrant child from China became part of a company, and children for whom speaking was difficult, if not terrifying, were thrilled and engaged -- surprising themselves, their teachers and their parents. The pride was palpable. For economic reasons, the NAC decided not to continue the program. The need is so great, and access for the rural students is so limited, the teachers asked if we would continue independently. We agreed. We started F.O.S.T.E.R. (Festival of Shakespearean Theatre, Elementary Readers). This year we are working with 350 children in six schools, in six rural communities around Eastern Ontario. On April 28th, 2009 we will all gather at the North Grenville Muncipal Complex for the FOSTER Fair for an opportunity to share the work we have created with each other.
What we did
We further refined the program we would teach throughout the year and secured a Municipal Theatre complex for the fair date. We enlisted the help of the principal of the designated regional arts elementary school and a number of teachers. We sent out notices through the regional school board to alert the teachers to the program. We submitted grant applications at the federal level and at the provincial level (both, though highly regarded, were unsuccessful, with both granting agencies having a success rate of 33%). We have 12 classes that we are working with throughout the year, and will have 350 students participating at the FOSTER Fair. The artists involved are personally subsidizing the classes' participation fees by 75%. We are looking for an angel, and will keep trying for funding. We are working toward creating an annual festival.
Our results
In these rural communities there is no theatre, and it is difficult if not impossible for them to get to larger centers. These are areas that have suffered greatly in times of economic decline. This program opens the world to them -- they have visited the forest of Arden, gone to Illyria, been tossed about on a tempest, and witnessed murder in ancient Rome. Limitations and expectations placed upon the students by themselves, their teachers and their parents have been altered. Now, the response is not doubt at the idea of a Grade Three class working on Shakespeare's text, but rather wonder at which one we will choose. The world has become full of poetry, language and ideas, challenges to ways of thinking and the pride of creative expression.
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