Acclaimed actor Matty Ferraro will be at Mckinley Middle for 4 days of intensive workshops with the Talented Theatre students. The students will be immersed in the words and beauty of Shakespeare and his most famous work Hamlet. Every year Manship chooses a few schools to participate in the artist in residence program, and Mckinley was chosen! The students will learn from Matty and travel to the Manship to watch the full length production of Hamlet.

Aquila’s productions of Shakespeare have been critically acclaimed by The New Yorker as “beautifully spoken, dramatically revealing and crystalline in effect.” The New York Times says that Aquila “makes Shakespeare perfectly comprehensible” and hails the company as “an extraordinarily inventive and disciplined outfit.” Directed by Desiree Sanchez, Aquila’s Hamlet will seek to shed new light on this tragic story. The production will use Sanchez’s innovative use of movement, design, sound, and superb acting to vividly explore the depths of rage, madness, love and death brought about by a culture of obsessive personal ambition. D.C. Metro said “Sanchez is wildly inventive, and the production choices made were carried out beautifully” and NY Theater Review says “her direction is polished and laser sharp.