About Artistic Learning

"Cal Shakes artists have helped me understand how to make Shakespeare come alive for the students." -Jennifer Dannenberg, Skyline High School

Our Artistic Learning programs serve learners of all ages and backgrounds from economically and geographically diverse communities throughout the Greater Bay Area. Rooted in the same philosophy that guides our artistic endeavors, Cal Shakes educational activities seek to awaken and nurture the power of creative thinking in learners, and to lay the foundation for a life-long interest in attending and supporting arts in their communities. We operate throughout the Bay Area and beyond; click here to see a list of our partners.

Our Programs

Summer Theater Programs take place in June–August for students ages 8-18. Each class within the Summer Programs is taught by a top-notch teacher and artist, combining the best teaching practices with deep knowledge of the subject area.

The Cal Shakes Student Discovery Matinee program includes, free of cost, an informative Teacher’s Guide, a lively pre-performance interactive engagement at the theater, and a post- show Q&A session with the actors. Want to prepare your students just a little bit more for the production? Our engaging, educational pre- and post- show classroom visits by highly trained Teaching Artists are available at a very low cost, and help contextualize the play and prepare students to more deeply engage in the production.

For schools, we offer residencies right in the classroom. Arts Integration School Residencies partner Classroom Teachers with Teaching Artists, to get students engaged and involved in curriculum core subjects, such as English and History, using arts-based approaches that support state-mandated curriculum and teacher professional development. We can also partner with teachers in theater-related subjects, such as Acting and Stage Combat, in our Theater Residencies. We receive raves for both types of residencies, and more and more research is confirming that arts-based approaches yield powerful results and strongly engaged and participatory students. Appropriate for 4-12th graders.

The Artistic Learning Department concentrates on Professional Development of both classroom teachers and of Teaching Artists. For classroom teachers, we offer onsite participatory workshops, with the goal of giving teachers arts integration techniques that they can easily replicate in their classroom to facilitate the teaching of core curriculum. Trainings are available as part of in-service days at school sites, as well as in the evenings and on weekends. We also offer professional trainings with nationally renowned trainers, such as Eric Booth and Rosalind Flynn. For Teaching Artists, we also offer a palette of in-house trainings.

This season Cal Shakes served over 7,000 people through our Audience Enrichment Programs, which are designed to contextualize and enrich the play-going experience for our audience members. We offer pre-show talks as well as numerous panels with production staff, actors, and audience to engage in meaningful dialogue about the production.
We also offer after-school programs and book-in visits and assemblies at your school site in theater-related disciplines, such as acting, Shakespeare, and stage combat.

Artistic Learning Sponsor:

Our Partners