User:ThomMacauley/sandbox

20160707 add performance of Red Velvet to play page.

San Jose Youth Shakespeare is a non-profit theater company in San Jose, California founded in 2003 by Bob Rumsby and Barbara Rumsby. The theater stages two to three full length plays yearly with a cast aged between 8 and 21 years. Current performance venues include The Historic Hoover Theatre and the Studio Theatre at Houge Park in San Jose.

The group seeks to establish a strong sense of community that is shaped around a creative and intellectual interest in Shakespeare's dramatic poetry. The company is run and sustained by the cast, production crew, and their families.

The company's strength is in its returning and maturing cast members. Production design, costumes, props, themes, are organically derived from the abilities and creativity of the cast and family contributors. Costumes, props, and sets are mostly created from scratch by cast and families. Live music and song performed by the cast are incorporated into most every play. Casting is by assignment and not by audition with the fundamental instruction to old and young cast members that there are no small roles. Typically lead actors in one play will serve chorus or supporting roles in another. Young or new players will gain more acting responsibility as they gain experience and show willingness to contribute to the productions.

Special productions occur each year. Bob Rumsby's own adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmal Carol is the winter production. Shakespearean comedy and tragedy alternate in Spring and Summer performances. Special readings and performances by alumni actors are planned periodically. In 2016, several alumni cast members returned to join the younger actors for staging the first modern play selected by the company, Lolita Chakrabarti's Red Velvet.

In order to make all of this possible, Youth Shakespeare accepts generous donations from various companies and individual contributors, having been officially recognized as a non-profit organization several years ago. The board of directors includes one or two student representatives to help ensure Youth Shakespeare is almost completely run by the youth.

Key contributors: Bob Rumsby - Founder and Creative Director Barbara Rumsby - Production Manager Chris Langland - Technical Director Audrey Rumsby - Visiting Director and Alumni Actor Nathan Sandoval - Alumni Actor Scott Handy - Visiting teacher 2012-2013 Karen Macauley - Fine Art Printmaker