Tackling Shakespearean roles as diverse as the romantic Romeo, Titania the fairy queen, the eloquent Mark Antony, and the monstrous Caliban, Central and South Texas students in grades 3-6 will take the stage at the Winedale Theater Barn on Saturday, May 1, for the annual spring Festival of Play performances at Winedale.

These young players, who have been working with the University of Texas Shakespeare at Winedale Outreach program since the fall, will perform on the same wooden stage as their college counterparts in the university-level Shakespeare at Winedale program, which is in residence at Winedale each summer and is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.

The young student performers, approximately 150 in all, are from public elementary schools in the Austin, Round Rock, Judson, and Victoria school districts. These same students, along with other school groups, will also perform on May 12 and 14 at the University of Texas Children's Shakespeare Festival at the B. Iden Payne Theater on the UT campus.

"If you can make it out to Winedale for these Outreach performances, you'll see and hear some young people who are very fired up about Shakespeare," said Outreach program coordinator Clayton Stromberger. "They've been working hard and have really fallen in love with these amazing words and these wonderful characters. So it's a big moment for them to finally set foot on the famous Winedale stage and become Shakespearean players."

Shakespeare at Winedale Outreach is a language arts and fine arts enrichment program designed to provide opportunities for meaningful learning and academic excellence for Texas schoolchildren, with a special focus on both emerging and advanced readers in grades 3 through 8, and on students in low-income communities. To learn more about Shakespeare at Winedale Outreach, visit www.shakespeare-winedale.org, call the UT Shakespeare at Winedale office at (512) 471-4726, or email program coordinator Clayton Stromberger at cstromberger@mail.utexas.edu.