THE SCOOP
PlayMakers stages Shakespeare for everyone
UNC Computer Science
has always had a long relationship with bringing the works of William Shakespeare to the University and local communities. This year, in addition to producing Twelfth Night (pictured at right) as part of their main-stage season, PlayMakers also brought Measure for Measure to the local community through its inaugural Mobile Shakespeare program. In addition to Mobile Shakespeare, PlayMakers reaches new audiences through the National Endowment for the Arts’ Shakespeare for a New Generation grant. The grant allows the company to send teaching artists to North Carolina schools to talk about the play before bringing the students to a free matinee. ➤ Watch a video by Kristen Chavez ’13 at magazine.college.unc.edu.
reached 10 million books read in January. The site, created by Karen Erickson of the Center for Literacy and Disability Studies and Gary Bishop of the department of computer science, reached the milestone less than a decade after its launch. Tar Heel Reader is an online collection of free, easy-to-read and accessible books on a Computer scientist Gary Bishop (right) welcomes a visitor wide range of topics. at a celebration marking 10 million books read for Tar The site was built to Heel Reader, an online program that helps students with fight illiteracy among disabilities learn to read independently. underserved populations, Tar Heel Reader reaches 10 million books read including those with disabilities that make it ar Heel Reader (tarheelreader.org), an difficult to learn to read using traditional online program that helps students with books and learning methods. Each book in disabilities learn to read independently, the collection can be speech-enabled and
T
accessed using multiple types of interfaces. In 2008, Bishop worked with Erickson to build Tar Heel Reader as a way for users to create beginner-level books targeted to older children and adolescents with disabilities. Although it was originally built for readers with disabilities in the United States, the site’s ease of use has made it a popular choice for a variety of language teachers and students across the world. The library now contains more than 50,000 books in 27 languages and has been accessed by users in more than 200 countries and territories. “I’m a programmer, so I’m an optimist,” Bishop said, “but I’m amazed by how far-reaching Tar Heel Reader has become. If you search ‘Tar Heel Reader’ on YouTube, you can find videos explaining in German how to set it up with a switch. There are even demonstrations that use puppets and stop motion video to explain the process.”
C AROL IN A ART S & SC IEN C ES | SP RIN G 2017 | CO LLEGE.U N C.EDU | 35
Photos by Kristen Chavez
PlayMakers Repertory Company