(Forgive the terrible sound quality. We were on, you know, a bus.)
Well, dudes, I'm back. Shakespeare was an incredible ride. I had almost no time to pull my team together, using scene selections and a cast that were selected before I joined the group. Which meant I was too freaked-out and panicked pressed for time to create a concept for the performances other than straight-forward Renaissance Shakespeare. But that's cool. Straight-forward Renaissance Shakespeare is how it was written, yeah?
We did some Elizabethan dancing in our ensemble scene–a Gaillard, to be exact–switched up several scenes and some actors, got everything blocked, costumed, choreographed, memorized, re-blocked, translated into modern English so the kids knew what they were saying, character goals and motivations talked-through, masks made, music found, set pieces painted (thank you Joel), two pre-competition performances under our belts, one actor out due to injury, another to being over-loaded, and some memorization issues dealt with, all in about 11 rehearsals.
All things considered, these kids were brilliant. The judges had only positive things to say about our ensemble scene–called it fun and enjoyable, and said the kids had a very good grasp of the language. And everyone learned a ton from the judges in their individual performances in scenes and monologues. Including my own kid, who I got to watch grow by leaps and bounds, along with her partner, until they took 3rd place for scenes in their division. (Woot! Double-Woot!)
As for the competition over-all, I've never seen such mature performances and confident handling of Shakespeare and the language in 12-14 year-olds. Every student at the competition should be proud of themselves. Including our High School, who did a drop-dead horrifying, sick bad and wrong, completely amazing scene from Titus Andronicus, and won with it. The judges called it "brilliant on every level." Which it was. If I decide it isn't too traumatizing to post here, I will. It's a very bloody and barbaric play, and was Shakespeare's most popular, in its day.
Working with teens is amazing. Love the energy. Even at 11:30 at night when I'm sticking my head out of my hotel room and telling them all to shut it and go to bed. Love the bright future. Even enjoy all the angst and hormones–if for no other reason than that I don't have them myself anymore. Mostly.
If you've got a Shakespeare festival around you, or within driving distance–or even flying distance–may I recommend that you let nothing stop you from going? The Bard is brilliant. Even after all these years. And exposing teenagers (and younger–I've directed 6th graders in his shows) to it is a wonderful thing. When they get it, when the language opens up to them and they start to find the layers of meaning, it's like watching a time-lapse video of a blooming rose. Lovely.
And so, in honor of the great master of rhyme and meter, of tragedy and comedy, of delicate touch and bludgeoning club, I give you a love sonnet, written by me, in Shakespearean form (14 lines, ABAB rhyme scheme with two rhyming couplets at the end, and 5 iambic beats per line):
Iambic Love
He wrote a note to me the other day
And filled it with his soul and heart and eyes.
A longing sonnet begging me to stay
With him, and seek no other wand'ring skies.
"A girl whose mind is always on the move,
whose heart is tied to zephyrs' errant path
finds not her life, while searching for her groove
but finds," he wrote, "instead her folly's wrath."
I sat and read the prose again and 'gain,
And wondered if my whirling life should be
Forever tied with him, forsaking pain
Of years spent roaming 'lone with only me.
His haunting words did pierce me as I wrote,
"Than stay with you, I'd rather kiss a goat."
That is all. (Exuent)
Love the sonnet! Still laughing.