Creating an Ensemble in Stratford

Virginia Grainger, lead practitioner with the Royal Shakespeare Company’s education department (shown above, left, with Karen Bell, associate vice president at Ohio State), has been working closely with the group of central Ohio schoolteachers who are in Stratford-upon-Avon, UK, this week. The group is involved in the teacher education program at the core of the partnership between OSU and the RSC.

Grainger is impressed with the new, international program. “I’m very interested in how this project is unfolding because it is a five-day intensive experience,” she said. “It’s akin to a rehearsal room – you put people together and they start to create a shared vocabulary; it allows relationships to build and trust to build. Because of that, we can really ‘stretch’ people. Because of the amount of time spent together, they can begin to do things they wouldn’t have dreamed they could do at the beginning of the week.

“One teacher said to me,” Grainger continues, “that one of the (drama) activities took them far outside their comfort zone, but they stuck with it because they trusted us, they trusted the group.

"There's something really special about the relationship that’s building because of this group’s time together. They are creating an ensemble.”

The group has spent the last two days exploring Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar through drama, movement, persuasion and rhetoric.
Teacher Features

Throughout the week, we’ll be talking with some of the 20 teachers who are involved as part of the first cohort in the OSU / RSC partnership program.

Janet Benedict, music, Baldwin Road Junior High School, Reynoldsburg

“First of all, it’s so amazing just to be here in Stratford and walk the floors that Shakespeare walked, and go to the performances. It brings life to the written word. As a group, we are really building a sense of community. The Reynoldsburg teachers, who are from different schools, are really getting to know each other. It’s exciting to be building a team with them, and the educational potential that that holds. It’s interesting to see what a powerful group of teachers we have.”

Kristina Bossa, 5th grade math and science, Windsor STEM Academy, Columbus Public Schools

“The (strategies) we’re learning are going to be a great way to keep our students engaged. I think it will be a good way to reach those hard-to-reach students, the ones who are reluctant to be an active part of class. I think they will love it!”