In their fifth annual CPS Shakespeare! collaboration, Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) artists and an ensemble of 30 students and teachers from ten Chicago Public Schools (CPS) are breaking down language barriers and promoting critical literacy with an adaptation of William Shakespeare's iconic Romeo and Juliet. CPS Shakespeare! brings together a diverse group of students from CPS high schools across Chicago in a collaborative process that provides training with a team of theater professionals, including text coaches and a fight choreographer. The script, adapted by Director Kirsten Kelly, includes portions of verse in Spanish to represent the diversity of the ensemble and Chicago community. CPS Shakespeare! Romeo and Juliet is performed on the same set designed for CST's current full-length production of Romeo and Juliet in the Courtyard Theater.

CPS Shakespeare! is a central component of CST's Team Shakespeare arts-in-education program, which has served over 1 million students and teachers since its inception in 1991. Many of the participating educators in CPS Shakespeare! have graduated from another component of Team Shakespeare programming: Bard Core Curriculum: Reading into Shakespeare. This year-long professional development seminar mentors English teachers from some of the most at-risk Chicago public schools, exploring how the skills of theater practitioners link directly to best practices in literacy. Bard Core also offers practical reading strategies through which CPS students may engage a Shakespeare play- and ultimately celebrate a newfound understanding of language.

"As schools across the country question whether Shakespeare is too challenging to remain in the curriculum, our work with CPS teachers and students is increasingly critical," says CST Director of Education and Communications Marilyn Halperin. "In a literate society, language gives us power. For the students who participate in CPS Shakespeare!, taking on Shakespeare's language as their own through the rehearsal process and performance is an act of real empowerment."

For CPS Shakespeare! ensemble member Maria Rivera, a teacher at Gage Park High School and former Bard Core participant, the power of Shakespeare's language is apparent. Rivera used the strategies she learned in Bard Core to create a Shakespeare curriculum for her ESL students last year and was astounded by the results.

"My students opened up 200 percent," Rivera says. "Everybody bought in. No one was disengaged and attendance was through the roof every day. Students were even excited to do vocabulary! They found a natural bridge between the language of Shakespeare and Spanish. As soon as kids can tap into the language, they feel brilliant and it means something. They feel a part of something bigger, and they feel connected to you for giving them that access."

After working with her ESL students on Romeo and Juliet in her classroom last year, Rivera is excited to bring several of them on board for CPS Shakespeare! Romeo and Juliet.

A total of ten high schools from across the Chicago Public School system, represented by 22 students and eight teachers, will collaborate on this year's production: Alcott High School for the Humanities, Curie Metropolitan High School, Gage Park High School, Hancock College Preparatory High School, Kenwood Academy High School, Multicultural Arts High School, Phillips Academy High School, Prosser Career Academy, Steinmetz Academic Centre and Taft High School.

CPS Shakespeare! Romeo and Juliet runs Friday, October 29 at 4:30 p.m. and Saturday, October 30 at 11 a.m. in CST's Courtyard Theater. Each performance is followed by a 30-minute post-show discussion with the entire ensemble. Tickets are $5 and may be purchased by calling Chicago Shakespeare Theater's Box Office at 312.595.5600 or visiting www.chicagoshakes.com.