BARDATHON

What is the Bardathon?

Richmond Shakespeare’s Bardathon offers an opportunity for students from many different schools to collaborate on the production of a single Shakespeare play. The program is produced with ongoing annual support from the Richmond Chapter of the English Speaking Union.

Beginning in the fall, each participating school group is assigned a single scene in the selected Shakespeare play. Over the following months, students prepare this scene under the guidance of a faculty sponsor, and with the support of Quill Theatre education staff. The following spring (typically mid-March), pieces of the play prepared by each school group come together over the course of a full day of performance. The show is streamed live online to allow schools, parents, community groups, and other audiences to enjoy the performance. While most participating schools are from the Greater Richmond community, a Russian school from St. Petersburg has participated every year since the beginning of the program, nine years ago!

What do we hope
to accomplish?

Our goal is to bring students of diverse Shakespeare experience and talent together to collectively create a performance of a Shakespeare play and to celebrate each other, no matter what the ability or experience level.

Why?

We want students to have the chance to engage with Shakespeare’s text the way it was meant to be done - on the stage. We hope students will develop and/or increase enthusiasm and familiarity by interacting with other Shakespeare fans and carry that enthusiasm with them throughout the world.