ShakesPre-K is an exciting program that introduces the works of William Shakespeare into the lives of children through play, original music, and interactivity. By adapting these plays into bite-sized lessons, ShakesPre-K students will be acting along with the bard’s classics even before they can spell the word “S-O-N-N-E-T”. You’ll be amazed as your students start quoting Shakespeare, expressing themselves in new ways, and cultivating a love of the arts like never before. From Romeo & Juliet to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, our original distillations make these beloved stories accessible, educational, and fun for kindergarten and pre-k students.
Hamlet Isn’t Dead’s signature curriculum is an ongoing course that uses multiple stories from Shakespeare’s canon as a jumping off point to explore the world of theatre. We provide the teachers and materials to engage children in four theatrical elements -- Puppetry, Costume, Music and Scenery -- as well as physical wellness, emotional play, and American Sign Language vocabulary. At the end of each semester, we’ll run an open class, so that parents and adults can see their actors’ newly found love of William Shakespeare!
Stephanie LaVardera (Teaching Artist) is an NYC-based actor and teaching artist who started teaching the Shakes Pre-K program in 2018. Stephanie is also currently on the faculty of the Waterwell Drama program at the Professional Performing Arts school, where she teaches acting and voice. She has also taught with Everyman Theatre, Maryland Shakespeare Company, Northern Stage Company, and Imagination Stage. She is a Resident Acting Company member of Hamlet Isn’t Dead, and proud AEA member. BFA: NYU/Tisch, MFA: the Academy for Classical Acting at the George Washington University/Shakespeare Theatre Company.
Ashley Burton (Teaching Artist) is an NYC-based performer, teaching artist, and freelancer who began teaching with Shakes Pre-K in 2019. She has trained at The Shakespeare Academy at Stratford in CT, Make Trouble’s Shakespeare, Devising, & Ensemble Program in VA, SITI Company in NYC, and Hamlet Isn’t Dead in NYC. When she isn’t teaching Shakespeare, Ashley works as a House Manager at Playwrights Horizons Off-Broadway Theatre and as a freelance Production Coordinator/Manager for New York events and major live television events including the MTV Video Music Awards (‘21, ‘22, ‘23) and The Met Gala Live from E! Show (‘22, ‘23). BA: UNC Wilmington
David Andrew Laws (Acting Program Director)’s educational practices have been implemented from New York to Pittsburgh, Kentucky, Bulgaria, and beyond. Highlights of his career include arts & music education with the Goddard School and arts training with Born Dancing, an NYC non-profit that offers programming for underserved students with disabilities and high-needs students. Whether teaching 2-year-old's, adults, or anyone in between, David's personal pedagogy is all about specificity and individual need.
James Rightmyer Jr. (Founding Program Director) is a graduate of the Liverpool Institute of the Performing Arts. He has experience teaching and performing for all ages, and is delighted to evangelize his passion for Shakespeare to anyone who will listen to him.
Elizabeth Campbell Rightmyer, Ed.D. (Education/Research Consultant) enjoys the fresh thinking of young children and has taught, directed, researched, and counseled them and their caregivers for over 40 years. She believes that children learn what they live, and advocates for wholesome, intriguing, and poetic curriculum and instruction.
Shaina Morgan (Education Consultant) is a graduate of the Early Childhood Education/Early Childhood Special Education program at the University of Delaware. She specializes in Preschool aged child development, where it is her firm belief that exposure to the arts is critical to healthy growth.
