The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival [PSF] at DeSales University and U.S. Representative Charlie Dent announce that for the second consecutive year, PSF ranks among select theatre companies nationwide awarded funding from the National Endowment for the Arts for its signature program, Shakespeare in American Communities/Shakespeare for a New Generation.

PSF’s annual Linny Fowler WillPower tour, the cornerstone of the company’s standards-based educational program, has served almost half of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties and more than 60,000 students at 100+ schools since the tour was founded in 2000. The $25,000 NEA grant will allow PSF’s fall 2008 tour of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing to include up to 12 new rural or inner city schools in 10 Pennsylvania counties previously not served by the Shakespeare in American Communities/Shakespeare for a New Generation, with an emphasis on western and central Pennsylvania. Funding will also support busing local students to summer Shakespeare performances at the Festival.

“The NEA grant supports PSF’s WillPower tour by connecting Shakespeare with today’s students in the most enriching way possible: live performance,” says Patrick Mulcahy, PSF’s producing artistic director. “After eight years on the road with this program, we have an established track record for reaching underserved and underfunded student populations in rural and inner-city environments. The feedback we get from the students and their teachers tells us that a live Shakespeare performance has a powerful impact on learning that continues after the truck is packed up and the actors are long gone.”

“The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival is one of our region’s premier cultural institutions, and I’m proud to see the NEA continue to recognize the festival’s outstanding work and valued contribution to education and the arts,” Congressman Dent says. “Providing young people and the community at large with access to the works of Shakespeare is a noble undertaking that serves to educate and inspire a new generation.”

PSF’s WillPower tour features a professional touring company of ten actor/teachers – typically, early-career professionals and graduates of MFA and BFA training – who perform an 80-minute Shakespeare play, followed by a post-play discussion. Pre-performance workshops provide students with direct experience of the language, imagery, ideas in the text; foster creativity and artistic expression; and improve communication skills.

Prior to receiving the NEA grant in 2007, taking WillPower beyond a 75-mile radius was cost-prohibitive, restricting the tour to areas within driving distance that did not require overnight stays. The new $25,000 NEA grant for 2008 will allow PSF to continue expanding WillPower’s audience in underserved schools remote from PSF and other major arts organizations, supporting food, lodging and travel expenses, and reducing performance fees required of the selected schools.

For the past two years, the WillPower tours of Hamlet (in 2006) and Macbeth (in 2007) were fully booked. A record 14,200 students participated in the fall 2007 tour of Macbeth. PSF first received funding from the NEA for the WillPower tour in 2005. The National Endowment for the Arts selected The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival at DeSales University from theatres across the country through competitive review processes. Since its 2003 inauguration, Shakespeare in American Communities has reached more than 1,700 communities in all 50 states.

The words of two students, drawn from PSF’s post-performance assessments, speak volumes for the tour:

“We are such a small town and never get the opportunity to see performances as great as this. I felt like we were there, experiencing everything Macbeth was. Thank you so much.”

“I want to go home and start reading it (Macbeth) so I can make connections in my mind and make it my own.”

WillPower is recognized by the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development as an Educational Improvement Organization.

Philanthropists Linny and Beall Fowler established an endowment providing substantial partial funding for the annual tour and for the expansion of PSF’s educational programming.

The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival at DeSales University is the Official Shakespeare Festival of the Commonwealth and a professional, not-for-profit theatre company. An independent 501 c 3 organization, PSF receives support from DeSales University and relies on contributions from individuals, government agencies, corporations and foundations. PSF is a constituent of the Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the American theatre, and a member of the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia and the Shakespeare Theatre Association of America.

The National Endowment for the Arts: The mission of the National Endowment for the Arts is to enrich our nation and its diverse cultural heritage by supporting works of artistic excellence, advancing learning in the arts, and strengthening the arts in communities throughout the country. Established by Congress in 1965, the Arts Endowment is an independent agency of the federal government and is the largest annual funder of the arts. Since then, it has awarded more than 120,000 grants in all 50 states and the six U.S. jurisdictions.

Arts Midwest: Based in Minneapolis, Arts Midwest enables individuals and families throughout America’s heartland to share in and to enjoy the arts and cultures of the Midwest and the world. Arts Midwest connects the arts to audiences throughout the nine-state region of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. One of six non-profit regional arts organizations in the United States, Arts Midwest’s history spans more than 25 years.

For more information [continued]:
Shakespeare in American Communities, visit www.shakespeareinamericancommunities.org
National Endowment for the Arts, call 202.682.5570 or visit www.arts.gov
Arts Midwest, call 612.341.0755 or visit www.artsmidwest.org