Teams representing high schools from across the region collaborate to celebrate the power of language—and their own voices—in the annual Chicago Shakespeare SLAM. Here’s how it works:
Each team, comprised of two to eight students, attends a Saturday workshop where they learn skills in text work, character building, staging, and–most importantly–come together as a SLAM community.
Then, back at their school rehearsals, each team prepares two performance pieces to be performed at one of the Preliminary Bouts. First, teams stage the “Scene Round,” a scene that they’ve selected from any of Shakespeare’s plays–cut, staged, and rehearsed. Next, teams stage the “Dream Round,” a devised, “remixed” performance piece inspired by a community shared text (this year it’s Hamlet) that explores a particular character, theme, or story that they want to tell in an original and creative way.
The top-scoring teams advance to perform in the Final Bout, which takes place on Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s stage, with the entire SLAM community gathering to celebrate and support their fellow performers.
