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08
Jan
2010
Casting call for Midsummer Night's Dream!
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#1
Grade 6 students tackle Elizabethan tragedy in Elginburg:
Elginburg Public School principal Jan Le Clair didn't want her students to be left cold with an introduction to Shakespeare, like she was.
Instead, students in Jerri Jerreat's Grade 6 class have jumped into the literature with gusto, staging an abridged version of the classic play Romeo & Juliet for fellow students recently.
The principal says she was inspired to organize the production by her own negative first experiences with Shakespeare.
"I didn't enjoy my introductions to Shakespeare," Le Clair recalls. "I found them dry and I didn't know how to relate to them. For me it's using costumes, set design, and comedy to bring it alive and make the children understand that the plays aren't too hard."
The text was adapted for school children by Stratford teacher Lois Burdett. The plot, characters, and even some of the lines, are unchanged from the original version. Romeo and Juliet are still children of rival Montague and Capulet families, and their forbidden love ends tragically. While many of the lines are shortened and simplified, they still hold true to the essence and style of the Bard.
"[Burdett] writes the lines in rhyming couplets, still using old fashioned language," explains Le Clair. "That helps the kids memorize the lines, because every other line rhymes."
Additional soliloquies, proclamations, and asides were written and performed by the students. The lines provided a form of commentary from bystander characters on what was happening in the main plot. Other students formed a narrative chorus, and helped tell the story by filling in plot details not performed on stage.
"[The additional lines] were a nice addendum to the script," says Le Clair. "It made a better tone for the story, and provided a bridge between the old fashioned and modern day speech."
The students auditioned for the show about six weeks ago by singing O Canada or Happy Birthday. While they were a little intimidated at first, the children caught on very quickly to the project.
"I'd heard about Romeo and Juliet, but I'd never seen any plays of it or anything," says Dylan Hutchinson, who played Romeo. "At first I thought I'd never be able to memorize the lines and the old English words, but it was actually pretty easy."
The biggest challenge, he says, was having to kiss Juliet.
The female lead was played by Hannah Edgell.
"It feels good to [play such a famous literary figure," she says. "It's great that everybody can have this experience, and that I got a chance to act in it."
In keeping with the Elizabethan custom of men in women's roles, the part of Juliet's Nurse was played by Ryan Weaver.
"It's really funny because the Nurse is supposed to be the comedian in the play," he says. "Her lines are a little hard to memorize but I memorized them pretty well."
The elaborate costumes also took some getting used to.
"The hardest part for me was sweating to death in my costume," remarks Justin Marchen, who plays the role of Friar Laurence.
The production was a huge success in teaching the children about the use of words, and the important role language plays in our lives.
"It's a really good way for kids to learn new words and improve their vocabularies," says Le Clair.
In addition, the students have learned a lot about acting, and what it means to get into character. Le Clair explains that the children had fun learning how to die on stage, and practicing their stage voices.
"It made them a lot more comfortable once they learned that your character can do things that normally you wouldn't do in real life, like kissing each other. They were really reticent at first but it's just blossomed."
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#2
According to the Royal Shakespeare Company:
Shakespeare should be taught to children as young as four, before they have become intimidated by the language, the Royal Shakespeare Company will say today.
Introducing the works of Shakespeare to teenagers is too late, the RSC will argue.
Jacqui O'Hanlon, head of education at the RSC, said: "We've seen teachers working extremely well in reception classes. There's been a lot of success with four-year-olds.
"With primary school kids there isn't a fear factor because they've never heard of him. What we do with children from the age of eight is unfold the story piece by piece and engage them with key moments of drama and try to get them involved in an empathetic moment of drama."
The suggestion that young children should learn Shakespeare comes as the RSC launches a campaign to improve the teaching of the Bard.
A spokesman for the exams watchdog, the Qualification and Curriculum Authority, said a review of the primary curriculum ordered by the government would be an opportunity to revisit whether Shakespeare should be taught at a younger age.
Currently, it is compulsory from 13 and Shakespeare is the only writer to be a mandatory component of national tests at 14.
Michael Boyd, artistic director of the RSC, said: "Really, the right time to learn Shakespeare is when children are fearless, when they are used to trying out new language.
"That is very young children's daily existence, new words aren't a problem. You need to get them before they lose the habit of singing songs and have had the fairy dust shaken out of them."
The RSC today publishes a learning manifesto arguing for children to start Shakespeare as early as possible, to see it live and to learn it through drama and practical workshops.
O'Hanlon said: "Shakespeare is only compulsory from 13 and that's a very difficult time to introduce it, when they are struggling with staying involved in their schooling and quite insecure about trying. That's when you get young people saying it's irrelevant."
A spokesman for the QCA said: "You have to do Shakespeare from 13 and you're tested at 14. There is a review of the primary curriculum under way and that would be an opportunity for Jim Rose [the review's author] to look at it again.
"One approach we've recommended with the new secondary curriculum is that many more children should have the chance to see Shakespeare live."
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