The exuberance of a rock concert, the camaraderie of a high school pep rally, and the enthusiasm that can only be mustered by several hundred teenaged students armed with Shakespeare’s canon will all be found at Shakespeare & Company’s 20th annual Fall Festival of Shakespeare. This landmark year of this nationally celebrated program will put on display the transformative power of Shakespeare’s words in young people’s lives, as teams of Shakespeare & Company education artists take up residence at local schools and lead students on a nine-week exploration that reveals the vibrancy, power and relevance of Shakespeare’s work in today’s world.

This year’s Festival, its 20th anniversary, is now underway: after two weeks of training in Lenox, the ten teams of Directors—Education Artists from all over the country—have completed recruiting in the schools, auditioning and casting their plays (not to mention cutting the plays down to 90 minutes!). Many schools are holding their first rehearsals today!

The Festival culminates with students from each of the 10 participating schools performing a Shakespeare play at their own school and then again as part of a four-day mini-marathon at Shakespeare & Company’s Founders’ Theatre, where its own Main Stage productions are mounted every summer. Shakespeare & Company’s set, props and costume departments collaborate with the education artists and the students to fashion a unique take on each play. This year’s marathon of student performances runs November 20 through 23.

Check out these videos to see what Fall Festival students and education artists have to say. And if you’ve never experienced the Fall Festival before, make plans to see it this year, November 20th-23rd (ticket info).