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Colorado Shakespeare Festival staffers share Shakespeare & Violence Prevention program with scholars and practitioners in England, including at Shakespeare鈥檚 Globe theatre

Scientists largely understand what contributes to violence in schools and communities鈥攁nd how to stop it. But actually putting that research into practice can be challenging.听

Live theater can help.听

That was the message the Colorado Shakespeare Festival鈥檚听听补苍诲听听shared with an array of Shakespeare scholars and practitioners during a weeklong outreach tour in England in early May.听

During their trip across the pond鈥攆unded by grants from the听Office for Outreach and Engagement听and the听Center for Humanities & the Arts鈥擥iguere and Schmidt met with experts at听, the听, the听听and the听.听

They gave presentations on CU Boulder鈥檚 innovative听听program in hopes that other theater companies and related organizations might one day implement similar initiatives to help prevent bullying, mistreatment, self-harm and violence in schools.听

鈥淲e have the research, but the science alone is not enough,鈥� says Giguere, the festival鈥檚 director of outreach. 鈥淲e really need engaging, human-focused storytelling and art to solve the problem of violence.鈥�

Becoming an 鈥榰pstander鈥�

Founded in 2011, the Shakespeare & Violence Prevention program aims to help students recognize harmful or potentially unsafe situations and take steps to intervene. This interdisciplinary initiative is a collaboration between the听听and the听.

Through the program, actors visit various Colorado elementary, middle and high schools to perform abridged versions of Shakespeare plays. (During the most recent school year, they performed听The Tempest听补苍诲听The Merchant of Venice, and next year they鈥檒l be touring and presenting听Romeo and Juliet听补苍诲听The Comedy of Errors.)听

Afterward, the actors invite students to role-play moments of conflict or violence from the play and ask them to propose an alternative strategy to help reduce or prevent some of the harm.

鈥淭his is all rooted in the power and efficacy of the 鈥榰pstander,鈥� also known as an ally or active bystander,鈥� says Giguere. 鈥淚t can be extremely effective when one person decides to take action if someone is being bullied or if they are aware of planned violence, rather than passively sitting by. Sometimes all it takes is one person to say, 鈥楬ey, that鈥檚 not cool,鈥� and usually the mistreatment stops right away.鈥�

To help conceptualize violence, researchers often use the metaphor of an iceberg. Although really big acts, such as school shootings, are the ones that make the news, they are just the tip of the iceberg, says Giguere. Those acts are typically rooted in a broader culture that tolerates and even perpetuates bullying, microaggressions and general mistreatment. The violence iceberg also includes self-harm and suicide.

In the long run, the program鈥檚 organizers hope that cultivating a robust community of upstanders among students will help reduce small acts of violence and, ultimately, will help foster more positive, supportive school climates. Together, those changes should, in turn, help prevent even larger, more devastating incidents in the future.听

And just as rehearsing helps actors polish a performance, practicing can help students become more comfortable and familiar with an array of upstander strategies.

鈥淲e鈥檙e using Shakespeare鈥檚 plays to give the kids a fictional metaphor they can step into and practice their own upstander strategies,鈥� says Giguere. 鈥淲e practice so many things in this world that we want to get better at鈥攚e practice tying our shoes, we practice CPR, we practice active shooter drills. All of those things don鈥檛 come easily, and they take practice. The same goes for upstander behavior.鈥�

Borrowing from The听Bard

Shakespeare鈥檚 plays鈥攑articularly the tragedies and history plays鈥攁re brimming with conflict. And while the words may be more than 400 years old, the themes remain relevant today.听

鈥淢any of these stories are rooted in a lot of what still shapes violence today, which is deep pain, deep trauma, deep division, deep disconnection,鈥� says Giguere. 鈥淎s I鈥檝e been investigating these plays over the years, I really do think Shakespeare was trying to figure out something about why humans are so violent with each other.鈥�

His plays also contain multiple perspectives鈥攕ometimes even within the same character鈥攚hich helps students think about the complexity and messiness of the human experience. People are not all bad or all good, but some mix of both.

Role-playing also helps students develop empathy because it encourages them to step into a character鈥檚 shoes and consider the scene from their point of view, Giguere says. That鈥檚 a useful skill for responding calmly and compassionately during a heated moment, rather than reacting with additional anger or violence.

鈥淭aking time to pause, take a breath, think about the world from another person鈥檚 perspective is one of the key building blocks of a safer community,鈥� Giguere says.

The power of interdisciplinary collaboration

During the past 12 years, the program has reached 126,000 students across the Front Range, with a goal of spreading into other parts of the state in the near future. Collaborating with other university departments has been a major driver behind that success, says Giguere.

In addition to drawing on evidence-based research from the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, the program has collaborated with numerous other partners, including the Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance, the School of Education and the Department of Theatre & Dance.

As the program has demonstrated, bringing together experts from across campus鈥攖hen sharing that combined knowledge with the public鈥攃an produce powerful results.