A Year in Applied Shakespeare: Collaboration, Creativity and Community

As our program prepares to welcome the next cohort of Applied Shakespeare students, I am pleased to share exciting highlights from the past year and illuminate some of the wonderful opportunities our students have taken part in throughout their time in the program.

Shakespearean Theatre and Modern Adaptation 

In the spring semester, I was honored to lead students through a study of modern adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays using their source material as playscripts for performance in the standalone course, Shakespearean Theatre and Modern Adaptation. The course included a study of Elizabethan staging practices, contemporary theory and criticism, creative writing projects and an examination of how these plays are (or might be) staged today. 

The experience was incredibly rewarding as I was able to connect with students from around the world and hear their unique perspectives on how they approach the material in their own lives. 

While this course offering will be discontinued in the new year, our other standalone course, Teaching Shakespeare, will be offered again in fall 2026 pending sufficient enrollment. 

2024-25 Applied Shakespeare Certificate Cohort 

Every year, our Applied Shakespeare cohort features a mix of teachers, theatre practitioners and scholars. This year was made especially notable by the addition of students from Australia and China who brought unique global perspectives to the program. 

As in years past, the cohort worked together in two online classes, Introduction to Applied Shakespeare and Shakespeare in Community, before traveling to Boulder in July for a one-week, in-person Summer Intensive. The Summer Intensive—a featured course in the Applied Shakespeare Certificate program—offered a variety of hands-on master classes taught by CU Boulder faculty and Colorado Shakespeare Festival guest artists, which included acting, directing, voice, pedagogy and guest lectures. Students also had the opportunity to watch performances for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s “The Tempest,” “Richard II” and “Doctor Faustus.”

During the Intensive, students also engaged in in-depth discussions of their individual Applied Shakespeare capstone projects. The capstone is a special project that allows students to create a presentation, workshop, paper, solo performance or script that intersects Shakespeare with a topic, specific population or social issue of their choosing. I am inspired each year by the ideas our students come up with and this year‘s capstone projects were no exception. Projects included:

• a toolkit for teachers teaching “Romeo and Juliet”
• an outline for a Gay YA novel called “Glitter Hamlet”
• a deep-listening project using Shakespeare’s soliloquies
• an abridged adaptation of “Richard II”
• a director’s pitch for an integrated production of “The Tempest” for Deaf and hearing audiences

Speaking on their experience during the program, cohort member Jason O’Leary wrote, “This program gave me a rare combination of intellectual provocation, artistic encouragement and practical support. It helped crystallize projects already underway, sparked entirely new ones, reignited old ones and most importantly, reminded me that Shakespeare can ignite all kinds of connections across disciplines, communities and forms. I'm leaving this course committed to building programs that keep Shakespeare in conversation with our moment.”

Thank you once again to the amazing community who joined us throughout the program and over the summer, we look forward to next year and all of the opportunities that come with it.

 
Get Started

Visit our program page to learn more about the Applied Shakespeare graduate certificate program or schedule a meeting with me to discuss how the program fits with your personal and professional goals. 

If you are interested in taking any of the aforementioned courses or the 2026 Summer Intensive as a standalone course opportunity, please email us at appliedshakespeare@colorado.edu. 

I sincerely look forward to engaging with you!

-Kevin Rich 
Director of the Applied Shakespeare Certificate