Words in Action Award

At the American Shakespeare Center, we are fortunate to have the opportunity to encounter excellent educators across a number of programs.  For almost 10 years now, we’ve been giving outstanding teachers a “pat on the back” through the presentation of the Words in Action award.  Since 2010, we’ve asked students to nominate their teachers for this award and have been touched by their words about these amazing people, so we shared them with our birthday party audience.  The number of nominations we received tripled in 2011, in 2012, they grew 10-fold.  We have found that the more nominations we receive, the more we are finding about teaching at every level.  So, this year, for the first time, we are recognizing our Words in Action teachers across four programs. 

These teachers have truly been great in “Act as [they] are in deed” and for their efforts on behalf of their students, they each receive scholarships to ASC Education programs and tickets to ASC shows.

The Words in Action winner for the Life-Long Learning Program at ASC, which includes our No Kidding Shakespeare Camp which is where we met her, is Anne, or as her students call her, “Bird” Cramer from New York. Bird, according to her students:

• “My class always had so much fun learning about Shakespeare, we would act out parts from the play…. I had heard people from other schools saying that Shakespeare was 'boring' or they 'couldn't understand it' and I had no idea what they were talking about.”
• “Every year, before summer, we do a school play.  Last year we did Much Ado About Will, and it was AWESOME!!! I was Flute, so I had to where a dress and a big wig but it was fun anyway.”
• “We put Shakespeare's works to the test by staging our own play, my teacher tried to keep the play true to tradition by using scarce set, relying on words to convey the essence of his stories. She taught us to read in iambic pentameter, keeping the pace in sync with the verse while acting with strong feeling.”

The Words in Action winner for Educator Resources, which includes Educational Residencies, which is where we met her, is Rebecca Wright from Pennsylvania. Rebecca teaches 2nd grade.

• "I think that Mrs. Wright deserves the award because she teaches Shakespeare in a way so that kids can understand it. In a play she helps you to learn the lines little by little by helping you to understand the words that Shakespeare used. And I think she should get the award because she is very helpful and cuts out the very violent parts of the script in the plays and suits you to the right part that she thinks that you are good at and because of this, I'd say she is really good at Shakespeare."
• “My daughter, who is in her second grade class, talks about "Shakespeare" time as a highlight of her day just about any day that it happens in the classroom. I hear my daughter quoting Shakespeare in her free play and she has even taught her little sister to be interested in the stories and language.”
• “Doing Shakespeare on Fridays is the special treat of the week. The children always greet the announcement of "Now we are going to do some Shakespeare" with cheers and applause.”

The Words in Action Award winner for College Prep Programs is Sue Ellen Tursack from Ohio.  One of her nominators wrote a sonnet in which he “thanks Shakespeare and the one who brought him to me":

A song, a word, a dance, a dagger drawn,
A laugh, a chill, a love, a boiling rage,
A frightened look, a barely stifled yawn –
So pass the two hours' traffic of our stage.
Our stage, and yet the words belong to him,
Who walked our globe, who led another Globe,
Who twisted tales great and tales grim,
A masterpiece still living in our homes.
Still here his words enliven younger limbs;
Still now his thoughts take root in fresher minds.
Four hundred years, and yet we walk with him.
A hundred thousand days we trace his lines.
How does a thought live centuries and grow?
How do we love him? How did we come to know?

Finally, from our Research and Scholarship program, we recognize the great Megg Jaster, who brings her students to our Little Academes every spring, even when all of her funding has been cut. 

• “Seeing Shakespeare through her eyes, through her excitement, has made Shakespeare so real for me. I no longer am afraid of any of his plays, or what he is trying to say.”
• “If there are two things Dr. Jaster loves, it's Shakespeare and her students.”
• “Sit in on one of her classes and you will see why she deserves this award. Enthusiasm oozes from her students when they talk about Shakespeare and his contemporaries.”

Thank you for what you do, Megg, Sue Ellen, Becka, and Bird.  We at the ASC salute you.

Each year, we give deserving teachers the Words in Action Award for their commitment to bringing Shakespeare to life for their students.

Who: Your grade school teacher, middle school teacher, high school teacher, college professor, post-graduate lecturer, theatrical instructor -- Any educator who has given you a deeper appreciation for Shakespeare as a playwright.

What: Nominees and their nominators will be eligible to win scholarships to ASC summer programs, such as No Kidding Shakespeare Camp, Teacher Seminars, or the American Shakespeare Center Theatre Camp, and will be recognized at Shakespeare's Birthday Party, held at the Blackfriars Playhouse on April 21st at 4:30pm.

When: Nominations end March 30th, 2013. We will contact winners in mid-April.

How: Check back next January to make a nomination for the 2014 Award.

We look forward to hearing how remarkable educators have illuminated Shakespeare for you!

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