The National Endowment of the Arts announced it has given out $25,000 grants to 40 nonprofit professional theater companies to participate in the "Shakespeare for a New Generation" program.
The program helps introduce middle and high school students across the country to live theater and the masterpieces of Shakespeare.
The NEA says so far, the program has reached more than 1.5 million students and their teachers since 2003.
"We are proud to support bringing Shakespeare to America’s students" said NEA chairman Rocco Landesman.
He added that the program has "connected youth with Shakespeare – sometimes for the first time – inspiring them and creating the next generation of audiences."
Six of the groups were also awarded grants through the Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, which helps organize programs for at-risk kids.
Among the shows supported by this year’s grants is a Montana Shakespeare tour of Twelfth Night, which will reach more than 10,000 students at 50 schools.
Kentucky Shakespeare will also tour 35 middle and high schools in five different states as they perform an abridged version of The Taming of the Shrew.
In addition to the grants, the NEA has also created free educational resource kits, including lesson plans, two DVDs and other materials for teachers to help bring Shakespeare into their own classrooms. So far, almost 75,000 of the kits have been sent out across the country.
By June 2010, the program will have helped support performances by 80 professional theater companies at 4,000 schools across all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.
The grants are part of the Shakespeare in American Communities Initiative, which started in 2003 with a nationwide tour involving seven theater companies, including a tour of 13 U.S. military bases.