About the Festival

The Secondary School Shakespeare Festival is an important educational program of the Folger Shakespeare Library. 

Although the Library runs many different programs for students and teachers, one focus unites them all:

to provide a range of resources and opportunities that bring to light the vibrant, passionate, human, hilarious, teachable, learnable, enjoyable playwright we know Shakespeare to be.

We believe:

• One of the best ways for students to enjoy Shakespeare—to learn something about the characters, to make the language leap—is to perform the plays.  The Festival provides a structure to promote performance.
  
  
• The Festival days are designed so that the students are each other’s audience. 
  
  Watching seven other scenes is as educational as performing one’s own.  Scenes from different plays are scheduled each day, so the students come away with an idea of the range and texture of Shakespeare’s work.
  
  
• Careful scheduling also ensures that students from different geographical areas and different kinds of schools share the Festival experience. 
  
  The world is an exciting and diverse place. 
  
  We need to meet each other.
  
  
• The Festival is fun. 
  In the attempt to keep it that way and in the spirit of the playwright who provided a good time to every theater-goer, the commentators will present recognition awards for excellence of every kind, and each student will go home with a tangible token of the day they trod the boards, backstage or onstage.  We want the students to have a good time, a great time, and maybe the time of their life.
  
  
• The Festival is a celebration, not a competition. 
  We are all educators who share with you the goal of learning more about Shakespeare and celebrating the spirit of human creativity as we enjoy the students’ accomplishments.