Young Shakespeare Players

The Young Shakespeare Players

Present…

Our Summer Season!

Thanks for bearing with us while we adjust to the rapidly changing conditions. Below is updated information on summer productions:

Now registering for the following—

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM—Now in person!

Introduction (on Zoom!): Sunday, June 14, 5:00-7:00 p.m.

Afternoon Rehearsals: Monday-Friday, (starting June 15) — 1:00-4:00 p.m. (CDT)  [Morning Rehearsals (ONLY if enough participants): Monday-Friday, (starting June 15) — 9:00 a.m.-12:00 noon (CDT)] 

Performances: Early-to-mid August; most likely ending August 16

Safety Procedures:

1. During each rehearsal, we will divide our actors and directors into three groups at the YSP Playhouse — the upstairs stage, the downstairs stage, and the outside yard (or, if it is raining, the inside ramp area).

2. At no time will there be more than 10 people in any area.

3. To preserve “social distancing,” we will specially mark seats (and enforce the markings) so that actors will not sit next to one another at rehearsals — and in fact will remain at least six feet apart.

4. Every actor and director will wear a face mask throughout each rehearsal.

5. We will temporarily modify blocking so that characters who are normally close together during a scene will be kept further apart during rehearsals.

6. We will have hand sanitizer available throughout the theater, and we’ll insist on its use.

7. We will ask each actor to go, one at a time, to wash his/her/their hands several times during each rehearsal.

8. We will do certain special rehearsals, with individual characters or scenes, online on Zoom, for those actors who can do so. This will further reduce overall exposure.

9. We will sanitize all of YSP’s doorknobs, bathrooms, kitchen area, etc. daily, after each rehearsal.

Email ysp@ysp.org for more information!

Download a registration form here: YSP Registration Summer 2020

The Young Shakespeare Players (YSP), a non-profit theater program founded in 1980 by Richard DiPrima, invites youth, ages 7-18, to perform full-length, original works of Shakespeare, G.B. Shaw, and Charles Dickens. There are no auditions or rejections. Any young person who registers will receive one or more substantial speaking roles. Designed to show participants, their families, and the community that these plays are delightful, accessible, and fun, YSP is the only year-round program of its kind. Actors learn to appreciate both the language and the drama in these great works as well as the technical aspects of acting and stagecraft. Special programs are also available for veteran actors, ages 14-26, and adult actors.

YSP fully incorporates each participant in every phase of production: rehearsing, directing, memorizing, providing technical support such as make-up and stage management. Performances are always admission-free, offering an affordable cultural and creative experience to participants and audience members. YSP furthers the emotional development of young people and provides them a community in which service and volunteerism is essential to the organization’s viability.