Faces of Community-Engaged Scholarship: Amanda Giguere
听鈥淭his is not the time for siloed knowledge, and experts agree that violence is a complicated issue that will require innovative and collaborative solutions. How can violence-prevention researchers harness knowledge from other disciplines to translate research into practice, and how can we bridge the gap between research and the daily lives of real people? Enter Shakespeare.鈥 ~Amanda Giguere, Shakespeare & Violence Prevention: A Practical Handbook for Educators听
听
Amanda Giguere is a pioneer or, at least, the leader of a team of pioneers. Giguere is the director of outreach for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival (CSF) and the founder of the . Since 2011, she and her colleagues at CSF, 色戒成人直播鈥檚 and other community partners in the violence prevention field have adapted and staged Shakespeare鈥檚 plays to see how the content and approaches can reinforce violence-prevention skills in K-12 students. To date, the program has reached nearly 140,000 students in 30 counties and more than 300 schools across Colorado, garnering national attention.听听
Giguere just published to help educators everywhere apply the lessons of the world鈥檚 most famous bard.听听
____________________________________________________________________听
The first play CSF adapted for this violence prevention program was Twelfth Night. What sparked your initial idea to incorporate an anti-bullying message into the play?听听
As someone who works with Shakespeare, I am always thinking about how the plays resonate with the present moment. 听Tim Orr, CSF鈥檚 current producing artistic director, and I wanted to produce Twelfth Night in K-12 schools because that title was slated to appear in CSF鈥檚 upcoming mainstage season. This was 2011, and we were hearing a lot in the news about bullying. It was becoming a prevalent issue. There was even a new term coined for suicide deaths caused by bullying: 鈥渂ullycide.鈥澨听
In the play, the character Malvolio spoke to the present moment [2011]. This character is the target of a prank that escalates over the course of the play. His last line of the play is 鈥淚鈥檒l be revenged on the whole pack of you.鈥 The play鈥檚 scenario reminded us of present-day issues with cyberbullying. Malvolio鈥檚 story unlocked a connection to the present.听听
While we started this as an anti-bullying project, we鈥檝e learned that Shakespeare鈥檚 plays invite engaging conversations about violence overall.听听
What research and evidence did you incorporate in Twelfth Night?听 What led to adapting more plays?听
Research about the power and effectiveness of upstander behavior to address harm gave us an entry point to the plays. Shakespeare鈥檚 plays would be very different if the characters operated in a culture where upstander behavior was normalized and respected.听听
A 2001 study found that 57% of the time, bullying stops in 10 seconds or less if someone acts as an upstander (someone who takes action to protect others). There鈥檚 no one way to be an upstander, but if witnesses choose to take action, it鈥檚 often really effective. When bullying occurs, young people are usually more aware of it than adults are. Students can practice their own upstander strategies before they need to use them in real life.听听
When we first staged Much Ado About Nothing in 2014, our CSPV colleagues were concerned about the plotline of spreading a rumor that someone had died. We didn鈥檛 know how depicting a rumor of someone dying would impact young audiences. Would there be any chance that depicting the behavior could encourage the idea?听 听So, we changed the play to 鈥淗ero has fled鈥 rather than 鈥淗ero is dead.鈥澨 That was 2014. In 2019, when staging Romeo and Juliet, we worked with the Colorado Office of Suicide Prevention and learned that the research had shifted. We know now that talking about suicide, for example, does not plant the idea in someone鈥檚 brain. The latest recommendation is that it鈥檚 important to ask someone directly if they are having thoughts of suicide. That鈥檚 an example of research evolving and, therefore, our approach.听听
Every time we produce a play we start from scratch, look at what has shifted in the world, and what has shifted in the research. The second time we adapted Julius Caesar was right after the January 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol. So, a play about a planned attack at the capitol resonated differently.听
In response to data that show youth are struggling with mental health needs, we鈥檙e currently adapting Hamlet and analyzing the mental health themes in the play. The 2023 Healthy Kids Colorado survey revealed that 28% of youth reported poor mental health most of the time or all of the time during the past month.听听
It鈥檚 neat to see how these plays written more than 400 years ago can bring the latest research to life.
How many students has Shakespeare & Violence Prevention reached, in how many schools, and in what areas of Colorado?听听
Since 2011, the program has worked with schools in 30 of Colorado鈥檚 64 counties and reached 139,919 students from 315 schools. I should shout out to my colleague at CSF, Dr. Heidi Schmidt, for developing the processes we use to keep track of these statistics!听
How do you know this program is making a difference?听听
With our very first Office for Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship grant in 2011, we set up four or five weeks of touring, and it booked up quickly, which suggests there was demand for this kind of arts programming that addressed schools鈥 needs. After that initial 2011 tour, we repeated the tour due to continuing demand. Then, at the 2012 annual conference of the Shakespeare Theatre Association, we gave a presentation about our anti-bullying approach to Twelfth Night. Colleagues were intrigued about the connection between Shakespeare and violence.听听
We kept exploring more titles and realized Shakespeare鈥檚 plays have so many overlaps with the violence-prevention field. Since that initial production, we have adapted nine Shakespeare plays for the violence prevention program. The upcoming Hamlet will be our 10th.听
When our actors visit schools, audiences are surprised by how fun and accessible Shakespeare can be. Teachers tell us that students who are not very engaged otherwise are surprisingly so during our visits. This program is also the first time many students see a play. Teachers and administrators frequently express appreciation for how our work aligns with and reinforces the school鈥檚 existing work. My favorite anecdotes are from teachers who report hearing the characters and the stories sneaking into students鈥 everyday language with one another. An elementary school teacher recently reported overhearing a student on the playground say: 鈥淗ey, remember Malvolio.鈥听
The arts offer a powerful kind of learning. I think the idea of taking a play and seasoned professional actors and letting kids watch them work, in and of itself, is highly engaging. I believe any exposure to live theatre is violence prevention because you鈥檙e practicing empathy, thinking about the world from other perspectives, and you鈥檙e physically around other people.听听
The most important question we ask after workshops is whether students are likely to act as an upstander the next time they witness mistreatment, and historically, between 85-90% of students say yes.听听
My hope for this project is that we鈥檒l be able to eventually stop doing it because we have a world of upstanders, and it will no longer be necessary.听
Why your book and why now?听
The program had been running for about seven years, and we were all excited by how effective the work is. I knew we were onto something here in Colorado鈥攔eaching 6,000-10,000 students per year with our in-person performances and workshops. But I wondered how we could reach beyond where our little van could travel. How else could we empower more people to integrate violence prevention into a theatre or language arts curriculum?听听
CSF, as part of 色戒成人直播, has an amazing connection to world-class research. Not every theatre company has a violence prevention research center right next door! Plus, it鈥檚 CSPV鈥檚 goal to get the research into as many hands as possible. So, I started writing the book in 2018, with a goal of sharing this work more widely and getting this kind of applied Shakespeare into classrooms everywhere.听
听Although it is written for educators, the content is approachable for a wide readership, regardless of whether you鈥檙e a classroom teacher or someone with an interest in Shakespeare.听听
Really, the book offers a model for how we can consume a lot of different art forms through a violence prevention lens.听听
How has working in partnership with communities flavored your work?听
Over the years, we鈥檝e learned to leave more room for participants鈥 voices and solutions during workshops in K-12 classrooms. Our actors are trained to facilitate activities, rather than teach any predetermined outcomes. Their job is to get curious about the existing wisdom in each classroom they visit. They ask questions and use students鈥 ideas to reframe scenarios from the plays, inviting students to step in with their own strategies as upstanders.听听
Dr. Beverly Kingston, director of CSPV, says that we have a lot of scientific information about violence and preventing violence, but that information alone will not get us there. We need human connection and human stories. The actors who work on this project show up in schools, perform plays that depict a wide range of emotions and experiences, and then they work directly with students to talk about what they saw in the play. When people can authentically connect with others, slow down, and have a discussion about violence in our world, this builds really healthy connections and promotes social and emotional skills. Working with Shakespeare鈥檚 plays reminds us about what it means to be human鈥攁nd this kind of community engagement helps us recognize our shared humanity.听听
Why do you think community-engaged scholarship is important for this campus?听听
From my perspective in the theatre world, it鈥檚 an important way to expose young people to the arts. The arts are the balm to the soul. Our actors performed in a rural community this past spring, and many of the kids had never seen a play. Afterwards, a student who had not been participating much in the post-show activities approached an actor and said: 鈥淭hat was the best day of my life.鈥澨听
We truly never know what's going to stick with a kid. It's easy to forget we鈥檙e in this bubble on campus where, of course, we value learning and research and the arts and the sciences and the humanities. But, that鈥檚 not a given everywhere.听听
I see this type of work as a pipeline and a way of building excitement about higher education and meaningful work. It鈥檚 exposure to 色戒成人直播 for many young people and an important reminder for our staff, students, and faculty that we are not alone in our research and creative work. Through community engagement, we are building the next generation of scholars, artists, teachers, and citizens.听听
What鈥檚 next for you?听
I鈥檒l be speaking about and signing the book at . And in the fall, I鈥檒l teach an online course for CU鈥檚 (Teaching Shakespeare), oversee the school touring productions of Hamlet and The Tempest, and I鈥檒l visit Australia to speak about the Shakespeare & Violence Prevention Program at the University of Melbourne. But in the meantime, we are in the midst of the (two beautiful productions of The Tempest and Richard II now open鈥攅veryone on campus should see them!)听听