Support Literacy and Retention with flair!

Using the Power of Theatre for Learning and Change Since 1974

Literacy, Retention, Violence Prevention, College & Career Pathways, and more - through Drama!
Bring CAT to Your School

It's a brand new school year, and our talented Teaching Artists are excited to work with you and your students to help make this year a smashing success!

Continue reading for information about our direct student services as well as workshops for teachers and parents, or scroll down to read about our NYC Student Shakespeare Festival program - registration is open now for the spring!

Professional Development:

Bring CAT to your school for CTLE-accredited PDs! Our team can provide sessions on student engagement and retention strategies as well as customizing specific sessions based on school requests, including literacy support, violence prevention, and more.

Parenting in the Millenial Age:

Explore present-day issues such as cyber-bullying, digital technology, the generation gap, and risky behaviors that affect children and their academic success.

Participants explore positive, effective strategies to have productive conversations with children as they encounter daily challenges.

Brief video about CAT's work and 50+ years of impact in NYC

Workshops and Residencies:

CAT can customize single workshops as well as short- and long-term residencies for all grades, supporting literacy development, student retention, social-emotional supports, violence prevention, college readiness and more.

We can provide drama-based residencies and workshops on a wide variety of topics, including:

Academic Success: encouraging participants to identify obstacles to academic success, and explore strategies for academic achievement.
Communication: identify pitfalls and explore best practices for building effective communication and productive relationships.
Conflict Resolution / Violence Prevention: examine the origins and impacts of a volatile climate and build skills and strategies to resolve and prevent adverse consequences.
Financial Literacy: explore financial management and independent living by examining spending habits, savings, investing, credit, and budgeting.
Health and Wellness: explore effective coping strategies for self-care, discover meaningful solutions, and define what it takes to be healthy in America today.
Media Culture: explore digital communication, screen addiction, risky behavior, apathy, and agency.
Title IX: Explore the concept of consent and boundaries, and learn about resources and protocols of Title IX policies that help people co-exist and be productive in a safe academic environment.

Literacy Support:

CAT can provide literacy-through-drama workshops and residencies to help supplement new efforts in literacy skills development. These can be customized based on curricular reading material or general support for Pre-K through 12th grade. Our NYC Student Shakespeare Festival program also supports literacy as well as arts and social-emotional skills - see below!

Student Retention Strategies:

Support student retention by bringing CAT's student-centered, engaging drama programming to your school - whether for drama and literacy, for any of the topics listed above, or for a specific need in your school community - contact us!

Bring CAT To Your School

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CAT is an NYC Public Schools Vendor and Arts Partner and a NYSED CTLE provider:

Arts Education • Supports for Students with Disabilities • Supports for English Language Learners

Vendor Number RFC988193 • Contract Number Q1129AS

Registration is OPEN for our Spring 2027

NYC Student Shakespeare Festival

Above: images from the 2026 Festival

ELA and SEL and ART, oh my!

Be a part of our 33rd Annual Festival!

About the NYC Student Shakespeare Festival:

NYCSSF is a sequential, skills-based, theatre literacy program in which professional Teaching Artists work with students and teachers, to familiarize them with the language and themes of Shakespeare as well as theatrical techniques for performing these texts onstage.

Through a scaffolded, 4-month process, students and teachers work with our Artists to create original scenes, using only Shakespeare’s words, by discussing issues important to them; selecting scenes that engage that theme; and collectively casting, blocking, adding rhythm/movement, rehearsing and performing their scene.

This student-centered approach supports Arts and ELA standards while allowing students to be wholly authentic throughout the creative process. These elements–collaboration, creation of original work and exploration of social issues–distinguish NYCSSF from other Shakespeare programs in NYC.

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Questions?

4-6 in-person residency sessions with Shakespeare Teaching Artists for students, in- or after-school
3 CTLE-credited professional development sessions for teachers (PD dates currently TBD in Jan, Feb, & Mar)
Culminating Festival - cross-site event for students to perform, participate in Shakespeare-related activities, and receive peer feedback, at an historic Off-Broadway Theatre (late spring dates TBD)

Additional Details & Notes:

Want to see a few examples of our participants' work? Watch our 2025 or 2026 videos!
NYCSSF is for 2nd grade - 12th grade classes or groups
Fees: Early Bird (before November 1): $2100 per class or $2000 for 2 or more classes. After November 1st, $2500 per class or $2400 for 2 or more classes.
We also offer Shakespeare in the Classroom, a literacy-through-drama residency program separate from the Festival program - please contact us if your school is interested in this residency rather than the Festival program.
The maximum number of classes from the same school per Festival day is 4. If a school wishes to register more than 4 classes, some classes will participate on a second Festival day.

More Info

Questions?

NYC Student Shakespeare Festival is a program of the CUNY Creative Arts Team (CAT).

CAT is a program of the City University of New York, under the office of K16 Initiatives. Research Foundation of CUNY functions as our contracts administrator. CAT receives no baseline funding from CUNY or RF, and is responsible for raising its own budget each year.