Battle of the Bard (BOTB) is a slam-style Shakespeare showcase developed in partnership with Chicago Youth Shakespeare and created to include student teams from public, private and parochial high schools throughout Chicago and the metropolitan area. BOTB is designed to cross boundaries—of geography, cultures and experience—through performance, team spirit, and friendly competition. Building a community that spans the Chicago region, Battle of the Bard celebrates Shakespeare’s capacity to speak to all.
A series of Saturday team workshops and Regional Bouts culminate in the Final Bout, held in Chicago Shakespeare’s Courtyard Theater. In the 2017-2018 school year, the program will include 50 schools and 300 high school students performing Shakespeare scenes, plus their own creative mash-ups from Shakespeare’s canon in a slam-style arena. The program honors the unparalleled power of Shakespeare’s language when it is catalyzed by students’ imagination as they discover the playwright’s relevance to their own lives.
In Partnership with
