Youth Festival of Shakespeare Brings CT Teens Together To Celebrate Voice, Literacy, Community

NEW HAVEN, CT —Elm Shakespeare Company's annual Youth Festival of Shakespeare is a two-day gathering that asks young people to do something rare in today’s world: stand beside one another, not against one another. The festival is intentionally non-competitive, designed as a shared playing field where students from different schools and neighborhoods celebrate each other’s work, practice compassion, and discover what their voices can do when they are heard.

The performances will be held at Naugatuck Valley Community College’s Fine Arts Center Dec. 12 and 13.

The Youth Festival has become one of Elm Shakespeare’s most distinctive education programs because of what it refuses to be. There are no trophies, no rankings, and no “best” anything. Instead, students arrive as artists and leave as a community—having performed on a professional stage, watched peers wrestle boldly with the same language, and realized that Shakespeare’s words can belong to every young person, regardless of background or prior theatre experience.

Last year’s festival at NVCC drew about 300 audience members and featured 75 student performers across four productions, with students repeatedly describing the experience as a confidence breakthrough, a place of belonging, and a literacy spark. Participant reflections clustered around five impact areas: confidence building, community and collaboration, literacy and learning, equity and access, and personal growth tied to future goals.

Students spoke about arriving nervous and leaving proud—of the work, of themselves, and of one another. One performer described the festival as a first real stage experience, recalling that being greeted with smiles and stepping into a professional theatre helped them overcome a long-held fear of performing. Others emphasized the joy of meeting peers they “wouldn’t otherwise meet from other schools” and the meaning of creating art together rather than trying to outdo one another.

"The Youth Festival is a vacation from what we're conditioned to be: Against one another. Suspicious. In competition... for the best test scores, grades, most likes/followers, best college, job, spouse, house, life. etc.” said Sarah Bowles, Elm Shakespeare’s Director of Education. “What if, for this project, we could all truly just celebrate each other's hard work. Revel in each other's glorious successes! For real. And not even secretly to ourselves think 'well, ours was the best.' Your success does not have to depend on someone else's failure. Not here. Not when we're all doing something beautiful, heartbreaking, and extraordinary. Creating theatre. As a team. And not just any theatre... Shakespeare."

This year’s Youth Festival features four student-driven productions that approach Shakespeare’s works with urgency, humor, and contemporary clarity:

Friday, December 12

6:15 PM — Macbeth (Elm Shakespeare Teen Troupe)

8:30 PM — The Comedy of Errors (Common Ground High School)

Saturday, December 13

2:00 PM — Hamlet (New Haven Academy)

6:00 PM — As You Like It (Educational Center for the Arts)

Tickets: Full Festival Pass $20, Day Pass $15, and a Youth Pass FREE for all attendees 18 and under, thanks to the generosity of Alexander Clark.

NVCC remains a crucial partner in the festival’s growth, offering a state-of-the-art theatre that gives students a professional production experience and room for the program to expand as more schools join in future years. NVCC theatre students also work alongside Elm Shakespeare’s staff, gaining hands-on training while mentoring younger performers—creating a bridge between high school and college artists that strengthens the entire ecosystem.

The 2025 festival is made possible in part by The Seedlings Foundation, The Werth Family Foundation; the MFund supporting arts, education, environment; Hartford HealthCare-GoHealth Urgent Care; the Carolyn Foundation, The Jane and William Curran Foundation; donors to the Barbara Schaffer Education Fund; the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven; the State of Connecticut; and other community partners committed to ensuring that access to Shakespeare’s words, and to high-quality arts learning, does not depend on a student’s zip code or resources.

For more information and tickets, visit esc.auctionsnap.com/2025yf/event.