Calling all Shakespeare teachers! The deadline to submit your application for the NEH Summer Institute, hosted by Theater for a New Audience (TFANA), is March 6. All participants will be invited to spend two weeks in Downtown Brooklyn (July 13-24, 2026) where they will learn from renowned Shakespeare scholars and performing artists while gaining inspiration for the upcoming school year. The theme for this year’s institute is “Witches, Warriors, and Counselors: Shakespeare’s Women in Times of War.” All teachers will receive a $2,200 stipend for participating.
Founded in 1979, TFANA runs the largest Shakespeare and classic drama program in New York City public schools, serving over 140,000
students. They have produced over 35 Shakespeare plays, becoming the first American theater company invited to bring a production to the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2001. Their standards-aligned school programs focus on literacy development and arts education and include residencies during which students in grades 4-12 attend professional performances and learn to write their own plays. myShakespeare was happy to collaborate with TFANA at last year’s NCTE where we participated in a workshop exploring the themes of power and comedy in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
The NEH Summer Institute is open to educators of all grade levels, and encourages applications “from teachers working in a wide range of subject areas, including but not limited to ELA, ENL, English literature, theatre and performing arts, government, history, and social studies, as well as educators such as librarians and administrators whose students would benefit from their multidisciplinary engagement with Shakespeare’s texts.” The experience promises to “deepen teachers’ familiarity with primary source material and historical context, enrich their understanding of both textual analysis and performance (and the relationship between the two), and enhance their ability to identify and teach common themes across Shakespeare’s plays (as well as other texts).” The application deadline is March 6, and the application can be found here. Good luck to all those who apply!
