CT Humanities Sponsors Shakesperience “Neighborhoods” Program

Press release

Thanks to CT Humanities, Shakesperience can continue to expand proven programs such as the oral local history focused Waterbury Interactive: Our City, Our Neighborhoods: 250th Celebration program.

Since 2013, Neighborhoods—Shakesperience’s signature humanities program has worked with Waterbury residents exploring their shared and personal histories. Through storytelling, small group study, fieldwork, and creative expression, local students and community members learn, study, and converse about experiences and events that have shaped their city, connecting the past to present during one-time, weeklong, and weekly learning sessions. Intergenerational participants conduct oral histories, research, and workshops that culminate in original presentations, exhibits, videos detailing the history and how-to of art forms, and community dialogues. This year, Neighborhoods expands to explore not only place but also identity, memory, change, and time in alignment with the 250th Anniversary of Connecticut offering a new perspective on Waterbury’s past, present, and future.

With support from local historians and samples of past and present songs, stories, photographs, and artifacts, students at Shakesperience will develop their own presentations. The first opportunity will be a weeklong session June 16th - 21st, 2025, and information and free enrollment for students in grades 5-12 can be found at www.shakesperience.org. Classes take place from 9am-12pm at the Shakesperience Studio at 117 Bank Street in Waterbury. Enrollment is limited, so students will be accepted to the program in the order that the organization receives completed applications.
In collaboration with the Silas Bronson Library, older adults, especially through digital storytelling workshops, are supported in capturing and sharing their personal and family histories. This will run from Summer 2025 to Spring 2026.

All of this, and other components of Shakesperience’s year-long “Neighborhoods” program, are made possible with generous grants support, including from The City of Waterbury, Connecticut Community Foundation, and Connecticut Humanities (CTH).

CTH is an independent, non-profit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. CTH connects people to the humanities through grants, partnerships, and collaborative programs. CTH projects, administration, and program development are supported by state and federal matching funds, community foundations, and gifts from private sources. Learn more by visiting cthumanities.org.

Shakesperience is a nonprofit professional theater company located in Connecticut that reaches a Northeast audience of adults and students alike with outdoor and in-studio performances, Saturday and private acting classes, school & camp tours, and residency programs. Shakesperience was founded in 1996 with a mission to educate and inspire students, families, and theater professionals through the arts.