WT Shakespeare Symposium to Connect the Bard with Regional Population

Copy by Chip Chandler, 806-651-2124, cchandler@wtamu.edu

CANYON, Texas — Teachers looking for ways to connect Texas Panhandle students with the immortal words of a beloved Elizabethan playwright can take part in an upcoming workshop at West Texas A&M University.

“Teaching Shakespeare, Here and Now” will run March 5 and 6 in the Classroom Center on WT’s Canyon campus.

“This is an ambitious project that will bring in five William Shakespeare scholars from across the state, among other guests, to help area literature and drama teachers demonstrate how Shakespeare is still relevant to students today,” said Dr. Matthew Harrison, WT’s Wendy Marsh Professor for Shakespeare Studies. “This is the kind of work that only WT, as a Regional Research University, can do.”

The conference is free and open to all area teachers. A 4 p.m. March 6 keynote address is free and open to the public, as well.

Registration information is available at sites.google.com/view/wteachingshakespeare2026/registration.

The symposium will open March 5 with a dinner and a staged reading of “The Tragic Corrido of Romeo and Lupe” by Seres Jaime Magaña, a 2018 adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” set in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley in the early 1940s. WT alumna Angelica Pantoja will direct.

“Students love the play’s compassion for all perspectives and sense of the complexity of Texan lives,” Harrison said. “I started teaching when one of my students said that she ‘saw her dad in it.’ She said, ‘I’ve never seen him in a play before.’ Magaña reflects on the difference between fixed tradition and living culture, shifting as it lets us blossom in new circumstances.”

A limited number of tickets for the staged reading are available. Contact Harrison at mharrison@wtamu.edu.

The March 6 schedule includes:

• 9 a.m.: Breakfast
• 10:15 to 11:45 a.m.: Workshop Session 1: 
  • Option A: “Teaching the Balcony Scene in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and Adaptations,” led by Dr. Katherine Gillen with Harrison. Gillen is a professor of English and associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Texas A&M University–San Antonio.
  • Option B: “From Stage to Page,” led by Levi Gore, artistic director of the New Mexico Shakespeare Festival and WT graduate.
• Noon: Lunch
• 1:15 to 2:45 p.m.: Workshop Session 2: 
  • Option A: “Creative Assessments: Shakespeare, Adaptation and Translation,” led by Dr. Kathryn Vomero Santos, author of “Shakespeare in Tongues” and member of the Humanities Texas board of directors, with Dr. Vanessa Corredera, general editor of Shakespeare Quarterly, and Gillen.
  • Option B: “Teaching Shakespeare for Performance: Scansion, Music, Embodiment,” led by Stephen Crandall, dean of liberal and creative arts at Amarillo College and former department head of art, theatre and dance at WT.
• 3 p.m.: Coffee break and guided reflection
• 4 p.m.: Keynote address by Dr. Jesus Montaño, author of “Young Latinx Shakespeares: Race, Justice and Literary Appropriation”

Meals will be provided for registered participants.

“Teaching Shakespeare, Here and Now” is supported by a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The event is sponsored by Borderlands Shakespeare Colectiva and WT’s departments of Art, Theatre and Dance, and English, Philosophy and Modern Languages in the Sybil B. Harrington College of Fine Arts and Humanities.

Supporting regionally impactful research and fostering an appreciation of the arts are key missions of the University’s long-range plan, WT 125: From the Panhandle to the World.

That plan is fueled by the historic One West comprehensive fundraising campaign, which reached its initial $125 million goal 18 months after publicly launching in September 2021. The campaign, which is now winding down, has raised more than $175 million.

About West Texas A&M University

A Regional Research University, West Texas A&M University is redefining excellence in Canyon, Texas, on a 342-acre residential campus, as well as the Harrington Academic Hall WTAMU Amarillo Center in downtown Amarillo. Established in 1910, the University has been part of The Texas A&M University System since 1990. WT boasts an enrollment of more than 9,000 and offers 66 undergraduate degree programs, including eight associate degrees; and 44 graduate degrees, including an integrated bachelor’s and master’s degree, a specialist degree and two doctoral degrees. WT recently earned a Carnegie Foundation classification as a Research College and University. The Buffaloes are a member of the NCAA Division II Lone Star Conference and offers 16 men’s and women’s athletics programs.

Photo: Participants in West Texas A&M University's upcoming "Teaching Shakespeare, Here and Now" symposium include, from left, Dr. Jesus Montaño, Seres Jaime Magaña, Vanessa Corredera, Dr. Matthew Harrison and Stephen Crandall.

—WT—