At HS Shakespeare: art and life, Shakespeare comes to life for our American and Italian students. Two young professional British and Dutch actors and directors, co-founders of an experimental company which specialises in Shakespeare, are coming to Assisi to help students understand, connect to individually, and live on stage the words of this great poet. Shakespeare’s wisdom, humor, joie di vivre, and profound insights into the human psyche become a part of students’ lives forever.

We will come at Shakespeare from so many different points of view.Students work on character-study, acting and directing; they study the historical background of the plays; they learn festive Elizabethan songs which animate the plays and the traditional dances with which most Elizabethan performances ended.
At the same time, they make sculptures (sometimes abstract)with found objects of a particular scene they love, or make watercolours of specific flowers or trees dear to Shakespeare, which were such an essential part of his self-expression (so many of his metaphors were drawn from nature) and are then incorporated into collages.

Italy is an important part of HS Shakespeare. Our home-base is a restored turn-of-the-century schoolhouse in the hills outside Assisi, in the middle of the Subasio national park. Every room at HS is different, with nooks and crannies and views of hills, plum trees, fields, dogs, kittens and ducks. Our HS van takes students into Assisi several evenings a week for ice cream and the gentle hum of piazza life, with its impromptu concerts (classical and jazz). Other evenings, students stay home to run lines or finish props with Italian students, stargaze, go for walks, and bake Italian cookies or cakes for our chiacchierata, relaxed discussions all together where each student reads his favorite line of the day to the rest of the groups and explains why he finds it interesting or beautiful (or both!). At least one night a week, HS: Shakespeare attends a concert, ballet, or opera at nearby festivals
Students may also choose to take our brief Survival Italian class each morning, where they perform brief skits in Italian with the help of our Italian students and learn some basic Italian grammar and conversation in the process.

Trips are also an important part of the HS: Shakespeare experience. Students travel in Italy to see works of art which illuminate the plays. We visit Spoleto, for example, and look at the outdoors frescoes by the one Italian Renaissance painter Shakespeare refers to by name and compare them to Shakespeare's lines about him. We look at the Niobe sculptures in the Uffizi museum in Florence to help students’ understand Shakespeare’s use of that myth.
On day 11, students perform their own experimental version of a Shakespeare play (probably Comedy of Errors, but this is still under discussion!).
On day 14, students direct their version of a Shakespeare sonnet with three or four actors from the group as their performers.
On day 15, students can choose to set off on an optional 6-day trip to Pompeii, Paestum and Naples where they see firsthand how classical myths live on in Shakespeare’s plays. Students also begin to deepen their understanding of how the classical world (which students experience directly for themselves in Assisi, Perugia and Florence, as well as down south) was a springboard for the English Renaissance and Shakespeare. Students also have free time wherever we travel; we have a lot of fun discovering piazzas and tourist sites together.

Conversation is at the heart of the Humanities Spring experience, during workshops, at meals and on trips. . We are a small community (of about 30 people) — and a jokey, tolerant atmosphere prevails. At HS, we all learn together.

Students need have no previous knowledge of Shakespeare to attend, though an interest in literature or theater will certainly help. Our only real prerequisites are open-mindedness and the desire to learn. We believe that different outlooks and backgrounds make the HS experience more fruitful and stimulating for everyone!

HS: Shakespeare Life and art will run from August 1st to August 14th and cost 1.600 dollars.
Our optional study-trip to Pompei/ Paestum/Naples will run from August 15th to 20th and will be a chance for us to spend more time together, see a lot of great art, read some more Shakespeare, have some excellent ice cream and relax at the beach. HS Shakespeare: Pompeii/Paestum/Naples will cost 800 dollars.