Shakespearience, founder & director Kitty Thompson‘s a long-cherished Mill Valley 501c3 non-profit theatre and arts education program for kids, has unveiled an exciting upcoming benefit.
“I pulled my favorite Shakespeare scenes/soliloquies for our 5th and 6th graders, plus Dani is directing steel rapier fights for Romeo/Merc/Tyb and Hamlet/Laertes for our Captains,” Thompson says. “And we’ve also got some lovely silent auction items, and delicious foods and refreshments.”
Thompson’s time and dedication in recent years have become dominated by her desire to pass along that love and commitment to kids, using Shakespeare’s text as a vehicle for students to develop their self esteem, multicultural empathy, emotional authenticity, and in finding a richness in human capacity and imagination.
In 2014, three years after she moved with her family from Bernal Heights in San Francisco to Mill Valley, Thompson made that effort official, turning her Shakespearience concept of inter-curricular, after-school programs and summer camps into a fully formed nonprofit entity.