Free Chicago Shakespeare Theater program teaches students how to perform plays from home

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A Chicago theater has created a free program to help students make Shakespeare's plays come alive from home.

The Chicago Shakespeare Theater launched Stream & Study in the playwright's birth month, collaborating with local schools for their spring study of the Bard.

The theater has made their 2017 production, "Short Shakespeare! Romeo & Juliet," available for streaming so students can engage in an active and performance-based way in their online classroom.

"We know now that teachers and students are in a place they have never been before," said Marilyn Halperin, the theater's education director. "We had the ability to reach out to them at this point and do our best to offer a resource at a time when they are struggling."

All through Illinois and outside the state, teachers have been offered e-learning resources that range from character study to language exploration.

"They are taking all the richness of their education program and translating that into the online learning setting and it's just phenomenal. It's wonderful," said Rita Thompson, a teacher at Elk Grove High School.

Stream & Study is part of the Chicago Shakes educational program Team Shakespeare, which has impacted more than 2 million students over three decades.

For more information about the new program, visit the theater's website.