News Release
September 30, 2004
Local Shakespeare Festival Founder To Be Honored In San Diego; School District Modeling New Festival After Denver's
Joe Craft, teacher and founder of the Denver Public Schools annual and highly-successful Shakespeare Festival, will become an honorary member of the San Diego Shakespeare Society on Saturday, Oct. 2. San Diego plans to copy Craft's formula when it launches its own annual Shakespeare Festival in the spring of 2006.
Craft's festival has earned plenty of attention and awards nationally. The festival was designated as a National Demonstration Site for the teaching of Shakespeare for 1993-1995 by the U. S. Department of Education, The Folger Library in Washington D.C. and the National Diffusion Network. Locally, the event has received the Mayor's Award for Excellence in the Arts (1994) and an Arts in the Market Place Award (1993).
The annual festival has grown to 3,500 thespian students and parent participants throughout DPS. Each year the festival kicks off with a colorful parade and includes several student performances at several area theatres. Events include the heavily-competitive "Challenge Bowl" to test Shakespeare knowledge and the challenge of performing Shakespeare in Spanish.
Last May two representatives from the San Diego California Shakespeare Society and the San Diego Public Schools attended Craft's Denver festival in the interest of replicating it in San Diego.
For more information, contact the DPS Communications Office at 720-423-3414.