Academics

Course Descriptions

The program is delivered in a hybrid online and in-person format. Complete the certificate in two semesters, with one online course in the spring and one in the summer, plus a one-week summer intensive with the Colorado Shakespeare Festival:

  Meets Monday 3 - 5 pm Mountain Time, January 13 - April 28, 2025

  Taught by Associate Teaching Professor Teresa Nugent

  This course focuses on answering the question: What is Applied Shakespeare? You analyze and discuss plays featured in Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s upcoming season. You also spend time brainstorming initial ideas for your individual capstone projects. Previous guest artists have included CSF Artistic Director Timothy Orr and Managing Director Wendy Franz, as well as directors of the summer season’s productions.

  Meets Monday 3 - 5 pm Mountain Time, May 5 - July 21, 2025

  Taught by Associate Professor of Theatre Kevin Rich

  This course focuses on examining Applied Shakespeare in the community, education and new work. You learn more about the Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s season from its directors, dramaturgs and designers and begin developing your own Applied Shakespeare capstone project. Previous guest artists have included Curt Tofteland (Shakespeare Behind Bars), Nancy Smith-Watson (Feast of Crispian), Sarah Enloe (American Shakespeare Center) and Kevin McClatchy (Shakespeare and Autism at OSU).

  Meets Sunday through Sunday all day, July 27 - August 3, 2025 (dates subject to change)

  This course offers a variety of hands-on master classes taught by CU Boulder faculty and CSF guest artists, which include acting, directing, voice, pedagogy, and guest lectures. You have the opportunity to watch rehearsals and performances for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival and have in-depth discussions of individual Applied Shakespeare capstone projects.

Capstone Project

The program culminates in the completion of your own Applied Shakespeare capstone project, in which you create a presentation, workshop, paper, solo performance or script that intersects Shakespeare with a topic, specific population or social issue of your choosing. You have up to one month following the intensive to complete and submit your individual capstone project.

Online courses meet synchronously to facilitate discussion, but recordings of each class are posted in Canvas and available for review following the scheduled class time for students unavailable for real-time classes.

Standalone Courses

You also have the option to take any course independently of the certificate program for three graduate credits per course. Dive into a particular facet of applied Shakespeare or test out the program before committing. If you are interested in this option, please email us at appliedshakespeare@colorado.edu. 

Teaching Shakespeare and Shakespearean Theatre and Modern Adaptation are other courses available to students. They are offered online in the fall and spring semesters. The availability of these courses depends on sufficient enrollment.

  Meets Monday 3 - 5 pm Mountain Time, August 26 - December 9, 2024

  Taught by CSF Director of Outreach Amanda Giguere

  This course focuses on pedagogies, lesson plans and exercises for making Shakespeare accessible for students of all ages and across multiple content. 

  Meets Monday 3 - 5 pm Mountain Time, January 13 - April 28, 2025

  Taught by Associate Professor of Theater Kevin Rich

  Studies modern adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays alongside their source material as playscripts for performance. Includes study of Elizabethan staging practices, contemporary theory and criticism, creative writing projects and examination of how these plays are (or might be) staged today.