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The Chicago Youth Shakespeare Ensemble (CYSE) is Chicago’s only professional youth Shakespeare company, offering young artists ages 14 - 19 the opportunity to train, collaborate, and perform Shakespeare’s plays together while earning a stipend and professional credit for their work. In addition to young actors, the Ensemble welcomes contributing youth artists who work behind the scenes to integrate original music, poetry/spoken-word, dance, photography, theatrical design, and other artistic disciplines into our Shakespeare productions. Representing a variety of communities, ethnicities, cultures, and life experiences, CYSE members create a unique, artistic ensemble fueled by collaboration, innovation, and a diverse range of creative approaches and ideas.
As a member of the Youth Ensemble, my knowledge of Shakespeare, theatre, acting, myself, and the world we live in grew drastically! I learned more than I could have ever imagined. At CYS, our goal is always to make Shakespeare's work accessible and relevant to young artists and audience members. We are committed to providing youth artists of all backgrounds with a safe, supportive, and inspiring creative environment, and to ensuring that audiences of all income levels can attend our performances. We also believe in putting teenagers in the driver's seat where they belong. For these reasons, CYS productions are conceived collaboratively by the ensemble members themselves. CYS staff, along with visiting professional artists from Chicago's rich theatre community act as facilitators, rather than directors - providing artistic training, guidance, and support throughout the process.
I felt like I was always being pushed artistically in ways that would improve me as an actor. And, I learned through this program to be the person to push myself. The CYS Ensemble and Summer Shakes Intensive programs have mounted a combined 14 Shakespeare productions with teen artists..
View our production history here. *** |
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The Chicago Youth Shakespeare Ensemble's 2019/'20 season was made possible in part by support from the following program partners:
