Testimonials

2012
We have nothing but wonderful compliments for this experience!

2011
I am forever thankful to you and your organization for connecting us with the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. The events that are planned for the group and the execution on those plans for the week have been transformative for our students.

2010
Our group is back, and they had a wonderful time. Every aspect of their time in Stratford-upon-Avon changed their students’ perspective on Shakespeare…even a story of a student who now reads Shakespeare every night before going to bed. So, a heart-felt thank you to you for giving us this opportunity.

Chris Hartley
Lakeside School
Summer School Programs Director
Seattle, WA

The Birthplace Trust was an extraordinarily gracious and thoughtful host for our stay in Stratford. Above all, as a result of the wonderful seminars the Trust provided and the fantastic plays we were privileged to attend, Shakespeare’s work became more vital and alive for each one of us, students and teachers alike. Each of our days in town was informative, pleasantly full and instructive, but never hurried – the pace was ideal. Perhaps most importantly, our seminars were something we looked forward to each day – instructive, thought-provoking, and engaging. It was a considerable effort of us to fly from Seattle to Stratford for our week there, but all the students and I agreed it was completely and thoroughly worth every mile of travel. We all had a wonderful and highly educational time.

Tom Doelger
English Teacher and Leader of Student Trip to Stratford, 2010
Lakeside School
Seattle, WA

2011
We had a truly remarkable visit to Stratford — an extraordinary experience for Concord Academy students and faculty alike. The program that was created by the Education Team at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust was first-rate, filled with lectures, workshops, tours, and opportunities to meet with the Royal Shakespeare Company actors. We saw an astounding five RSC productions during the week — an extraordinary range of storytelling and some of the Bard’s most exhilarating works. The students were deeply engrossed in the experience, and all grew enormously from this intensive immersion in Shakespeare — the history, the poetry, the scholarship and the performances.

Concord Academy is incredibly grateful to American Friends for making this trip possible. Your support in forging these connections has been invaluable to the educational and artistic growth of our students.

We are already in the process of planning a future visit for March 2012. The excitement and momentum for continued opportunities to study with the SBT are quite palpable.

Upon our return from Stratford, several of the students from the trip immediately began organizing a Shakespeare Club here on the Concord Academy campus. Thanks for being so inspirational.

2012
We’ve just returned from an extraordinary week in Stratford! Once again, the folks at SBT created a phenomenal program of experiences and opportunities for our students, who embraced the work with open hearts and minds. We truly had a fantastic time! I’ll be sure to ask the returning students (two, actually) to focus on the chance to return.

As always, we are incredibly grateful to you for your support, enthusiasm, and generosity!

David R. Gammons
Director of the Theatre Program
Concord Academy, Concord, MA

2011
What a trip! My students and colleagues returned awed by and grateful for their experience at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. The actor talk-backs, the discussions led by Liz and Paul, the explorations of the various SBT homes–and the plays themselves!–were all lively and stimulating and presented at a very high intellectual level. A continuous round of delights. The trip was led by our current Upper Division Head, who is himself a Shakespeare scholar, and by a young Medievalist on our faculty–and they were unqualified in their praise. The SBT program was not only engaging and thought provoking, but everything we so well organized and all felt so well cared for.

I am so glad that you introduced us to the SBT–this will no doubt become a permanent part of our program. And next year we’ll spend even more time in Stratford!

Adam Casdin, PhD
Horace Mann School
New York, NY

2012
I just wanted to say thank you to all of you for your help in facilitating our incredible trip to England last week. I wanted you to know that the trip was wonderful. The program was comprehensive and exciting, and the pre and post show workshops were so informative, yet fun and engaging. The staff (Nick, Elizabeth, Gennet, etc.) were fabulous, and the performances were unbelievable. I mean truly amazing; I was in theatre heaven. The response from the students was overwhelmingly positive, and many of them would like to return again in the years to come. Thank you so much again for everything. This was truly and unforgettable experience for these girls.

Kim Calhoun
Director of the Arts
School of the Holy Child
Rye, NY

The Birthplace staff know very well how to pitch their lectures and discussions at the appropriate level. They also know well how to provide lectures that will stimulate interest in Shakespeare, Stratford, and ideas of every kind. Invariably meetings with the lecturers have been outstanding. I recommend the courses without any reservation whatsoever.

Professor Emeritus Jay Halio
University of Delaware, DE
Quoted in SBT’s TrustWeekly Newsletter

The “Embracing Shakespeare” webinar was a lot of fun for the better part of an hour. (It was frustrating not to hear parts of it, especially at the beginning, but I’ve come to expect such glitches from any webinar.) I teach high school in upstate New York, and the opportunity to learn from scholars like Peter Holland and Stanley Wells was a real treat for a summer’s day. I think it’s terrific that you have the vision to persuade these giants to avail themselves globally, and to persuade their publisher to foot the bill. It goes hand-in-hand with Blogging Shakespeare’s approach of, effectively, crowd-sourcing Shakespeare. With my students and colleagues, I plan on not only telling them about the great resources on the site (including the previously recorded webinars), but also the approach of including many contributors to elevate the dialogue about and understanding of Shakespeare. Keep up the great work.

Fred Montas, Jr.
English Department Chair
Manlius Pebble Hill School
DeWitt, NY
Quoted in SBT’s TrustWeekly Newsletter

“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him; The evil that men do lives after them, The good is oft interred with their bones, So let it be with Caesar … The noble Brutus Hath told you Caesar was ambitious: If it were so, it was a grievous fault, And grievously hath Caesar answered it … Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest, (For Brutus is an honourable man; So are they all; all honourable men) Come I to speak in Caesar’s funeral … He was my friend, faithful and just to me: But Brutus says he was ambitious; And Brutus is an honourable man…. He hath brought many captives home to Rome, Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill: Did this in Caesar seem ambitious? When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept: Ambition should be made of sterner stuff: Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; And Brutus is an honourable man. You all did see that on the Lupercal I thrice presented him a kingly crown, Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition? Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; And, sure, he is an honourable man. I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke, But here I am to speak what I do know. You all did love him once, not without cause: What cause withholds you then to mourn for him? O judgement! thou art fled to brutish beasts, And men have lost their reason…. Bear with me; My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, And I must pause till it come back to me”

Julius Caesar