Our Chicago Shakespeare Slam remains, first and foremost, an ensemble program—building community among the members of a school’s team and between the many schools’ teams participating across the Chicago region. Together, we’ll have the opportunity to dive deep into Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream—with each team approaching its scene through the team’s unique lens.
We’ve developed a short list of guidelines that we ask each team to follow. The bonus to having a few parameters? They can spark creativity like nobody’s business.
- Each school’s team is comprised of 2–8 student performers. (Have students interested in supporting the team “behind the scenes”? You have the option of 2 additional students serving as Peer Coaches.)
- The entirety of the Scene Round text must be from one of Shakespeare’s plays. You may choose a scene from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but it must be a different scene than your Dream Round selection.
You’re strongly encouraged to cut the original script (as pretty much every professional director and group of artists does), but any reordering of lines belongs not in your Scene Round but, in your team’s Dream Round. (See “SLAM Rounds Explained,” starting on page 6 in the Team Resource Guide Act I.)
- All scenes must be 5 minutes or under.
- All team members and teacher coaches are responsible for cultivating an atmosphere that not only fosters creativity, but also nurtures a supportive environment through the physical and emotional safety of all participants.
- Students are encouraged to play any role or roles, regardless of age, gender identity, ability, race, or ethnicity.
- Teams are encouraged to intersperse lines or words from their scene that they’ve translated from Shakespeare into their first language. (Intrigued but not sure where to start? We’ve included a link in our “Techno Shakespeare” section starting on page 16 of the Team Resource Guide Act I to a Spanish translation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream).
- Ideally, performance pieces are fully memorized.
- We want to keep the focus on the students, their imaginations, their audience’s imagination, and the language. No costumes, props, or technical enhancements, please!