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Honoring The Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival for its commitment to producing excellent Shakespeare productions and education programming and making both accessible to all.
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WHEREAS, The Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival was founded as The Red Heel Theatre in 1989, initially focusing on classic works of English theatre; and
WHEREAS, In 1993, Carmen Khan became the Artistic Director of Red Heel and in 1996 focused the company's efforts on the works of Shakespeare, renaming it The Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival; and
WHEREAS, Since that time, the Festival has produced 30 plays, reached nearly 30,000 high school students and nearly 70,000 adult audience members and is considered one of Philadelphia's great cultural institutions; and
WHEREAS, Since its conception in 2000, the Festival’s Open Door Project has reached nearly 30,000 students from Philadelphia, the greater Delaware Valley and New Jersey-- from semi-rural communities outside of Philadelphia to troubled inner-city neighborhoods; and
WHEREAS, For eight years, The Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival’s Open Door Project has welcomed thousands of students through its Student Matinee Series where each season, the Festival entertains 3,000 students with approximately 30 daytime performances which consistently sell out; and
WHEREAS, The Artist-in-Residence Program component of the Open Door Project invites students to study Shakespeare through performance where, Teaching Artists collaborate with the classroom teacher to lead students in hands-on activities that address both the literary and performance aspects of the plays; and
WHEREAS, Through a partnership with the renowned Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, The Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival hosts special all-day training workshops for teachers under its Shakespeare Set Free Teacher Training; and
WHEREAS, In the 2007/2008 Season the Festival welcomed 4,107 students with matinees and in-classroom residencies; 17 teachers for Shakespeare Set Free training and 30 classrooms from 16 schools in residencies, 9 of which participated free of charge; and
WHEREAS, The students and teachers served by the Festival represent every religious and ethnic group from the Philadelphia Region’s diverse communities; and
WHEREAS, The Festival is the only arts-in-education provider in the region that is dedicated exclusively to Shakespeare-focused education programs which have been developed by working closely with classroom teachers and experts in the Office of Curriculum and Instruction (OCI) of the School District of Philadelphia (SDP); and
WHEREAS, The Festival actively targets and serves those schools that currently have little or no theatre arts programming and seeks to provide every student, especially the underserved, with the opportunity to attend professional performances of exceptional artistic quality and to participate in stimulating educational activities that will deepen their understanding of Shakespeare’s language, his stories, themselves and their world in order to promote lifelong learning; now therefore, be it
RESOLVED, THAT THE CITY COUNCIL OF PHILADELPHIA, Hereby honors The Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival for its commitment to producing excellent Shakespeare productions and education programming and making both accessible to all; and
FURTHER RESOLVED, That an Engrossed copy of this resolution be presented to The Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival as a sincere expression of this Council’s acknowledgment and gratitude for the Festival’s contribution to the cultural life of Philadelphia and the education of the City’s youth.
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