Program Description
The Lily McKee High School Fellowship is a joyful, deep, and rigorous experience for high school students from the greater Washington, DC area. From January to May 2026, McKee Fellows will engage deeply with research, scholarship, and performance to explore As You Like It, guided by the rich resources and vibrant community of the Folger Shakespeare Library. The McKee High School Fellowship will culminate in a multidimensional project where fellows will utilize a work from the Folger Shakespeare Library’s collection as a point of departure for their own creative and intellectual endeavors.
Areas of Exploration
Research: With guidance from McKee High School Fellowship faculty members, Shanta Bryant (Folger Shakespeare Library) and Morgan Ellison (Folger Shakespeare Library), fellows will explore the Folger’s exceptional collection. This includes hands-on sessions in the Folger’s Reading Room, where they will conduct original research using rare books, manuscripts, and digital tools.
Scholarship: Fellows will participate in seminars and lectures led by scholars from the Folger and beyond. These sessions will provide fresh perspectives on Shakespeare and the Early Modern period and give fellows space to develop original ideas of their own. Scholarship faculty includes Dr. Ellen MacKay (University of Chicago) and Dr. Michele Osherow (University of Maryland Baltimore County).
Performance: Fellows will explore the principles and practices of performing Shakespeare. They will also attend a performance of Folger Theatre’s production of William Shakespeare’s As You Like It. Performance sessions will be led by award-winning theatre maker and Professor of Theatre Emerita Caleen Sinnette Jennings (American University).
Community
McKee Fellowship is its cohort. Fellows will join a supportive, curious, and joyful group of students from across the DC area. They will learn from teachers and texts, and also from one another, forming friendships and intellectual connections that last beyond the fellowship.
Stipend
The McKee Fellowship requires a significant investment of time and effort. Each fellow will receive a $1,000 stipend in recognition of their work and upon completion of the program.
Eligibility
The fellowship is open to high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors attending public, private, parochial, charter, or home schools in the Washington, DC area. Sessions will take place at the Folger Shakespeare Library approximately 3 times a month from January to May. Applicants should have a strong interest in at least one of the following: literature, museums, libraries, history, drama, the humanities, or Shakespeare. Prior experience with Shakespeare is not required.
Application
Please complete the application below to be considered for this year’s Lily McKee High School Fellowship. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis. The application deadline is Monday, December 2nd at 11:59 pm. If you have any questions about the application process, feel free to contact Liam Dempsey at ldempsey@folger.edu.
Lily McKee High School Fellowship Application
Faculty
Caleen Sinnette Jennings
Caleen Sinnette Jennings (Adaptor) Folger Theatre: Rap Monologues. Playwright: Queens Girl Trilogy: Queens Girl in the World, Queens Girl in Africa, Queens Girl: Black in the Green Mountains; Round House Theatre: Homebound. Arena Stage: May 22, 2020; The 51st State. The Kennedy Center: commission, Darius & Twig. Dramatic Publishing Service has published eight of her plays, and her work has appeared in seven play anthologies. She has received playwriting awards from the Kennedy Center and Actors Theatre of Louisville. She is currently writing the book for a new musical on the life of famous black contralto Marian Anderson. American University: Professor Emerita, Theatre. The Welders: Founder.
Ellen MacKay
Ellen MacKay is an Associate Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature and the Committee on Theater and Performance Studies at the University of Chicago. She studies Shakespeare and other early modern English literature, and theater theory and performance. She is a co-director of the multi-project CEDAR initiative.
Michele Osherow
Michele Osherow (Dramaturg) Folger Theatre: The Winter’s Tale (2023, 2018, 2009), The Merry Wives of Windsor, Amadeus, 1 Henry IV (2019, 2008), Love’s Labor’s Lost, Nell Gwynn, King John, Macbeth (2018, 2008), The Way of the World, Antony and Cleopatra, Timon of Athens, As You Like It, Sense and Sensibility, District Merchants, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2016, 2006, 2022), texts&beheadings/ ElizabethR, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Mary Stuart, Julius Caesar; Fiasco Theater Company’s The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Richard III, Romeo and Juliet (dramaturg and actor), Twelfth Night, Henry V, The Conference of the Birds, The Taming of the Shrew, The Gaming Table, Othello (2011, 2001), Cyrano, The Comedy of Errors, Henry VIII, Hamlet, Orestes: A Tragic Romp, Much Ado About Nothing, Arcadia, The Tempest, Measure for Measure (dramaturg and actor). University of Maryland, Baltimore County: Associate Professor of English.
Morgan Ellison
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