Shakespeare Leaders & Greek Drama Programming at Frederick Douglass Academy
Shakespeare Leaders is a bold and innovative program, funded in part by the Charles Hayden Foundation, through which students develop style and technique by learning and performing Shakespeare. The program sets a high bar for excellence and teaches students ensemble, collaboration, responsibility, professional conduct, self-worth and culminates in a full performance of a Shakespearean play in the local community and a New York City theatre.
In the Fall of 2010, with the generous support of the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, students from Frederick Douglass Academy brought a profession production of Homer's Iliad: Book One, translated by Stanley Lombardo to the Onassis Cultural Center.
For 2008-2009, Aquila was able to expand programming to include Greek drama with the generous support of the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation. Students produced The Antigone Project, a compilation of scene's from Paul Woodruff's translation of Sophocles' Antigone. In conjunction with the performance, students also visited Worshipping Women: Ritual and Reality in Classical Athens exhibit at the Onassis Cultural Center in Manhattan.
Shakespeare Leaders is supported by The Charles Hayden Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, and The Axe-Houghton Foundation.
Program History
2018 The Seven
2017 Much Ado About Nothing
2016 Romeo and Juliet
2015 The Taming of the Shrew
2014 The Tempest
2013 Twelfth Night
2012 A Midsummer Night's Dream
2011 Julius Caesar
2010 The Iliad: Book One
2010 Much Ado About Nothing
2009 The Comedy of Errors
2008 Antigone Project
2008 Romeo & Juliet
2007 A Midsummer Night's Dream
“Shakespeare’s words, art and spirit came to life. Resounding through the crowded auditorium, packed with parents, relatives, teachers and friends who had come to witness history in the making in Harlem.”
“In order for students to be successful in college, we must build upon the tradition of excellence and must expose our children to the classics, including Shakespeare. The Aquila Theatre and the Charles Hayden Foundation joined forces with FDA to produce an amazing production of Romeo & Juliet. Our students can achieve great things when supported.”
“Part of our need to watch theatre grows from our need to care about other people.”