Sunday May 21st – 11:15 – 1:00pm – Rehearsal Hall

Nurturing Inclusivity in Teaching the “Classics”

Julia Nish-Lapidus and James Wallis (Co-Artistic Directors of Shakespeare BASH’d and
Shakespeare instructors at Randolph College) www.shakespearebashd.com

Workshop Objective: To empower educators to approach the English “classical cannon” in a
way that embraces the gender diversity of their students and helps each student feel safe and
welcomed in their class.

Workshop Summary:
Historically, teaching the Western “classics” has sometimes resulted in harm and exclusion of
marginalized students, asking them to ignore their individual identities and lived experiences,
fitting the mold of what these plays and characters were “supposed” to be like. It is still possible
to teach these plays and have students bring all that makes them who they are to the work, without diluting the ability to teach technique, history, and form. This workshop will offer participants tools to assist students in finding their own individual voice in these old characters and texts, enhancing their work with their individuality and identity and helping welcome them into a genre that in the past may have felt exclusionary. Participants will be offered tools and examples, as well as look at classical text, examining how to search the text for potential harmful references/words, and how to make adjustments thoughtfully without undermining the work, and how to discuss these changes and challenging subject matter with students in a welcoming, positive, and constructive way.

Julia Nish-Lapidus (she/her)
Julia is an educator, actor, director, and producer, as well as a Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Shakespeare BASH’d. For Shakespeare BASH’d, Julia has directed Cymbeline, Richard III, The Comedy of Errors, and The Duchess of Malfi (staged reading). She was a member of the Stratford Festival’s Michael Langham Workshop for Classical Directing, acting as the Assistant Director on Private Lives and Associate Director on All’s Well That Ends Well, and as co-facilitator of the WordPlay series in the Forum. In the Festival’s 2021 season she was Co-Director and Co-Curator of Play On! A Shakespeare-Inspired Mix-Tape.
Julia is passionate about fostering a love and confidence in the classics for young actors and has taught at TMU, Randolph College, and runs a series of classes and workshops for professional, amateur, and emerging actors through Shakespeare BASH’d.

James Wallis (he/him)
James is an educator, director, and actor. In 2010, he co-founded Shakespeare BASH’d with his wife, Julia. For the company, James has directed staged readings of Romeo and Juliet (2010), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2011), Edward II (2015), Volpone (2017), as well as the full productions of Romeo & Juliet, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Macbeth, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Twelfth Night, Othello, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The Tragedy of King Lear. James participated in the Michael Langham Workshop for Classical Directing at the Stratford Festival, assistant directing Macbeth, Bunny, and Romeo and Juliet, as well as Julius Caesar in 2018. He returned to Stratford in 2021 as Co-Director and Co-Curator of Play On! A Shakespeare-Inspired Mix-Tape. As an educator, James has worked at TMU, UTM, Randolph
College, as well as running a series of classes through Shakespeare BASH’d.