On 17 August 2012 the Shakespeare Institute was delighted to welcome a group of American high school students bereaved by the events of September 11 2001, taking part in an educational tour of Britain organised by the British Council.
Founded in 1951 by a scholar brought back to Britain from Yale, Allardyce Nicoll, the Institute has always been a profoundly transatlantic institution, and one which has regularly studied the place of Shakespeare in both North American and British culture across time: it is housed, moreover, in a building in which Mark Twain once stayed (as the guest of the novelist Marie Corelli).
The students were introduced to Shakespeare and Stratford by the Institute's Deputy Director, Professor John Jowett, and saw a performance of scenes from As You Like It given by the Shakespeare Institute Players.