University Program
University Program
Learn more about Shakespeare at Winedale's college classes!
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"My time at Winedale was the most magical experience of my life. The best parts of my college experience—my friendships, my professional growth, my love of Shakespeare—are rooted in Winedale. The barn offers more chances for intellectual and personal exploration than any other program I've participated in. You will make your mark on Shakespeare, and he will make his mark on you."
- Kira Small (Winedale Spring and Summer Class of 2023)
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Summer Class
“It’s a real privilege to be creating art here and doing it at such a prestigious level.”
—David Patridge, Summer Class 2026
The Shakespeare at Winedale Summer Class is a 6-unit course dedicated to the study of Shakespeare's plays through performance. The class is open to any major and any university student, and challenges participants to perform and produce three of Shakespeare’s plays over the course of the summer. Students spend their summer living on the 250-acre University of Texas Winedale Historical Center, near Round Top, Texas. Scholarship money is available as needed: we work to make Winedale accessible to anyone.
At Winedale, students live and work in a peaceful pastoral setting and perform in a converted century-old hay barn. The isolated wooded landscape provides a special kind of magic and a uniquely focused intensity for the exploration of these supremely demanding plays. Students study Shakespeare 8-11 hours a day, most days of the week. The summer concludes with 20 public performances of the plays studied for around two thousand audience members.
The 2027 class will perform and study As You Like It, Macbeth, and Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker’s The Roaring Girl.
The summer program dates for 2027 are June 5 to August 16, and applications will be available on this website beginning in January 2027, with a March 15th due date.
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Spring class
"It’s hard to describe this experience without using spring as a metaphor. The world keeps turning, and time keeps turning her glass, and still we return to Shakespeare, and still everything becomes living again.”
—Katie Manz, Spring Class 2026
This spring we explore Shakespeare’s thorny and dark comedy, Measure for Measure. We will spend class time learning about this play and what it means to us in 2027, and will spend three weekends at the Winedale Historical Complex, living in collaborative community. Students will be in residence at Winedale February 26-28, April 9-11, and our performance weekend, April 23-25. Meals and accommodations are provided. The course is designed for students interested in Shakespeare and willing to perform in front of others. No previous experience with acting or Shakespeare's texts is necessary.
The 2027 spring class will meet on campus on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12:30 to 1:45 pm.
The brief application is due on October 28th at midnight. If selected you will be notified on November 1 and a seat will be reserved for you in the class. If you have any questions regarding the application or the class, feel free to reach out to the program coordinator at grantgilker@utexas.edu.
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