With the resolve to take the Bard where the Bard has never been, the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival [PSF] at DeSales University was recently awarded funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.

PSF’s annual Linny Fowler WillPower tour, the cornerstone of the company’s educational outreach program, has served 15 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties since the tour was founded in 2000. The $25,000 NEA grant will allow PSF’s fall 2007 tour to include up to 12 new rural or inner city schools in 12 Pennsylvania counties previously unreached by the NEA’s Shakespeare in American Communities/Shakespeare for a New Generation program, now in its fifth year.

“WillPower is dedicated to providing greater access to the arts by bringing live, professional productions of Shakespeare’s plays to the next generation,” says Patrick Mulcahy, PSF's producing artistic director. “We have a track record for reaching underserved student populations in underfunded schools that serve a culturally diverse, economically challenged student body. Consistent with our status as the official Shakespeare Festival of the Commonwealth, we now have the opportunity to reach much deeper into the state with this powerful programming.”

PSF’s professional touring company of eight to ten actor/teachers – typically, early-career professionals and graduates of MFA and BFA training – performs an 80-minute play, followed by a post-play discussion. Pre-performance workshops provide students with direct experience of the language, imagery, arguments and ideas in the text, foster creativity and artistic expression, and improve communication skills.

To date, taking WillPower beyond a 75-mile radius has been cost-prohibitive, restricting the tour to areas within reasonable driving distance that do not require overnight stays. The $25,000 NEA grant will allow PSF to expand WillPower’s audience in underserved schools remote from PSF and other major arts organizations, supporting food, lodging and travel expenses, and reducing or eliminating performance fees from the selected schools.

Last year’s tour of Hamlet was fully booked, and wasperformed for 8,500 students and educators in four and a half weeks. The fall 2007 tour will feature Macbeth. PSF first received funding from the NEA for the WillPower tour in 2005. The National Endowment for the Arts selected the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival at DeSales University from across the country through competitive review processes. Since its 2003 inauguration, Shakespeare in American Communities has reached more than 1,300 communities in all 50 states. The theater companies participating in this year's program come from 28 states.

"I am proud that for a fourth year Shakespeare for a New Generation will provide students around the country the experience of live theater," said NEA Chairman Dana Gioia. "But this program's reach extends beyond the theater to the classroom with dynamic workshops for students and superb educational materials. Last but not least, the program supports theater companies and provides actors with the best employment possible -- acting in great plays."

WillPower is recognized by the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development as an Educational Improvement Organization.

Philanthropists Linny and Beall Fowler established an endowment providingpartial funding for the annual tour.

The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival at DeSales University is the Official Shakespeare Festival of the Commonwealth and a professional, not-for-profit theatre company. An independent 501 c 3 organization, PSF receives support from DeSales University and relies on contributions from individuals, government agencies, corporations and foundations. PSF is a constituent of the Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the American theatre, and a member of the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia and the Shakespeare Theatre Association of America.

The National Endowment for the Arts: The mission of the National Endowment for the Arts is to enrich our nation and its diverse cultural heritage by supporting works of artistic excellence, advancing learning in the arts, and strengthening the arts in communities throughout the country. Established by Congress in 1965, the Arts Endowment is an independent agency of the federal government and is the largest annual funder of the arts. Since then, it has awarded more than 120,000 grants in all 50 states and the six U.S. jurisdictions.

Arts Midwest: Based in Minneapolis, Arts Midwest enables individuals and families throughout America’s heartland to share in and to enjoy the arts and cultures of the Midwest and the world. Arts Midwest connects the arts to audiences throughout the nine-state region of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. One of six non-profit regional arts organizations in the United States, Arts Midwest’s history spans more than 25 years.

For more information:

-Shakespeare in American Communities, visit www.shakespeareinamericancommunities.org

-National Endowment for the Arts, call 202.682.5570 or visit www.arts.gov

-Arts Midwest, call 612.341.0755 or visit www.artsmidwest.org