Stream & Study 2023

Dear Teachers,

We know the visceral and lasting impact of live performance—particularly in a student’s introduction to Shakespeare. We know what it feels like when an audience of students, together in a room with a story, shares that experience with our actors and with one another. We were over the moon to welcome back the few high school audiences we could over this past season, but profoundly missed the hundreds upon hundreds of students we have traditionally introduced to our Theater each week at this time of year. And we’re gratified every time we hear from you how much that “missing” is mutual.

Until we get to welcome you back to the Theater, we are so pleased to share with you and your students Stream & Study 2023, free, and available for a limited “run” streaming online to classrooms, March 1–April 30. Our 75‑minute abridged production of Macbeth, adapted and directed by the incomparable Marti Lyons, actively engaged students day after day in our Courtyard Theater. Raw and emotionally truthful, our production brought this story to life to 40,000 students four years ago at our Theater’s home on Navy Pier and on tour to schools and parks across our city.

We want to stay connected (and make new connections, too!) in this year when we have not yet reintroduced a live production of an abridged Shakespeare play for our student audiences.

And so we are happy to announce an all-new Stream & Study 2023 classroom program—completely FREE to classroom teachers—featuring our abridged production of Macbeth, accompanied by a wide variety of guaranteed-to-engage teaching activities, including:
 

• our 75-minute filmed production (closed captioning available)
• a 15-minute recorded discussion with the cast and a student audience
• activities to directly support and enrich your students’ viewing of this production
• activities that help students’ understanding of “reading” a performance as text
• literacy-focused, drama-based activities
• demonstration videos modeling activities, step by step
• a host of production-based questions to inspire classroom discussion

We hope that our Stream & Study Macbeth will offer not only curricular “muscle” supporting your Shakespeare unit, but also a hefty dose of creativity and engagement that comes with approaching Shakespeare through performance and interpretation—without ever leaving your classroom.

To receive exclusive educator access to our FREE online production for 8 weeks, March 1–April 30, 2023, plus free accompanying classroom activities, FILL OUT THE FORM BELOW. Each individual classroom teacher who participates in this program must register, so if there are other teachers on your faculty with whom you’d like to share this exciting resource, please share this registration page with them so that they, too, can register for Stream & Study 2023.

If you have questions, please reach out! Call us at 312.595.5678 or email csteducation@chicagoshakes.com.

We so hope that our production and accompanying class activities will support you and give your students an imaginative lens into Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

Education Department
Chicago Shakespeare Theater

2022/23 LEAD TEAM SHAKESPEARE SPONSOR

Major Team Shakespeare Supporters

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY

Butler Family Foundation, Fifth Third Chicagoland Foundation, The Malott Family Student Access Fund, Pritzker Foundation Team Shakespeare Fund, Ropes & Gray LLP, Dr. Scholl Foundation, The Segal Family Foundation Student Matinee Fund