Texas State awarded NEH grant for ‘Teaching Shakespeare’s Plays’

“Shakespeare was a man of the theatre who wrote works of popular culture for the theatrical marketplace,” Falocco said.

SAN MARCOS – Texas State University’s Joe Falocco, an associate professor in the Department of English, has been awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities grant in support of his “Teaching Shakespeare’s Plays” project.

The grant of approximately $63,000, awarded through Summer Seminars and Institutes for College and University Teachers, supports professional development programs in the humanities for school teachers and college and university faculty.

“Shakespeare was a man of the theatre who wrote works of popular culture for the theatrical marketplace,” Falocco said. “Therefore, an understanding of the original staging conditions under which the plays were first produced is a necessary prerequisite for teaching Shakespeare.

“This seminar is designed to provide that understanding,” he said. “Alumni will be able to bridge the gap between page and stage when teaching Shakespeare. They will guide students who read the plays to envisage their performance; and they will be prepared to stage scenes in their classrooms or for public consumption.”

The anticipated venue for this NEH seminar is the Curtain Theatre in Austin, a reconstructed early-modern playhouse owned by Austin-area philanthropists Richard and Laetitia Garriott de Cayeux. Inspired by the Globe Theater in London, this unique facility features many of the architectural features of Shakespeare’s original stage.

The NEH’s Summer Seminars and Institutes for College and University Teachers support intensive one- to four-week projects in which 16-25 college and university faculty members, working with scholarly experts, engage in collegial study of significant texts and topics in the humanities. Falocco’s grant is one of 19 supporting this type of project.

About Texas State University

Founded in 1899, Texas State University is among the largest universities in Texas with an enrollment of 38,849 students on campuses in San Marcos and Round Rock. Texas State’s 180,000-plus alumni are a powerful force in serving the economic workforce needs of Texas and throughout the world.  Designated an Emerging Research University by the State of Texas, Texas State is classified under “Doctoral Universities:  Higher Research Activity,” the second-highest designation for research institutions under the Carnegie classification system.