TEEN EMBRACING Shakespeare
Bard of Avon still speaks to youth and adults alike 400 years after his death
Boy, that Ben Jonson sure nailed it when he said in a poem from 1623 that the playwright “was not of an age, but for all time!”
No kidding. Here we are 400 years after Shakespeare’s death and the Bard of Avon is as popular as ever.
Shakespeare is credited with inventing 1,700 words. But language aside, what Shakespeare was brilliant at — and what has kept his words alive through the ages — is his interest in the human condition. Like Hamlet says, we should hold a mirror up to nature — take a closer look. This concept is Shakespeare’s muse.
“The plays have so much depth and they have so much in them that they actually change with time even though we’re not changing a word. When events of our world happen, there’s ways Shakespeare’s plays become relevant,” said Mike Stack, a Vancouver actor and director who has spent 20 years show-and-telling Shakespeare in B.C. schools.
Stack is also busy with the Bard outside of the classroom. He is currently directing Carousel Theatre’s Teen Shakespeare Program’s upcoming production of Much Ado About Nothing (July 29-Aug. 13 at Granville Island).
“I always try to tell young people to try and find themselves in the Shakespeare. What is it that speaks to you?” said Stack. "Some people like to say he examines the human condition better than anybody. I think that is it, that is what works when he reflects ourselves back on us."
For 26 years, Carousel Theatre’s Teen Shakespeare Program has been making sure his work passes over the lips and through the hands of young actors.
Actor Darquise St. Germain, who is playing Beatrice in Much Ado, remembers being 12 and nervously walking into the Carousel rehearsal space five years ago for the first time.
"At first I had no idea what anybody was talking about. What is this iambic pentameter that people are mentioning? I was in Grade 7. I didn’t know anything about Shakespeare,” said St. Germain, adding that as soon as she really listened to the text, a light went on for her.
“You don’t read a play, you hear a play,” said St. Germain, who will be graduating from Kits Secondary in 2017. "Once I started understanding, it wasn’t just a story with weird words, but that it was poetry, that it was so much more. I got it.”
Like many others, St. Germain found a home in Shakespeare’s world when she literally stood up and spoke out.
“When you allow students to stand up and act the words, it actually places them in that world,” said Peter Beharry, drama/acting teacher at Eric Hamber Secondary, who incidentally was in London and heading to the Globe Theatre for a show when we talked. “His language is actually written so that you’re not just describing things, you actually become interactive with that environment and that world as you are speaking and breathing the language.”
Beharry sees the teen years as the perfect age to launch headfirst into Shakespeare’s work. When asked about the difficulty of the texts, Beharry explains it actually makes the author’s work more attractive to adolescents.
“I know Shakespeare can be intimidating to some, but I also know once they are exposed to it, there’s a sense of accomplishment that comes with it,” said Beharry. “It’s like you introduce them to a code that they know other people understand. Then once they crack the code and they see how fun it is, it’s quite empowering on so many different levels and I think that’s what is a joy and delight for them.
“It’s almost like joining a club, but the trick is to let everyone know it is not an elitist club. It’s the kind of club that does take work.”
And a lot of that work involves standing up to and understanding the emotional buttons that Shakespeare so deftly installed, then pushed. Hamlet alone is a minefield of mommy issues and mental anguish.
“Sometimes, if you just sit down with kids and ask them to articulate their feelings, it can be a scary thing,” said Beharry.
But here’s where Shakespeare comes in handy. Whether it’s Romeo and Juliet or Macbeth, Shakespeare wants — no, demands — introspection from both his characters and the actors that play them.
“They go from being a spectator to being right in it. And once that clicks, it’s amazing. It’s a tidal wave of feelings and emotions. Pure joy. It becomes fun,” said Beharry, adding that a bit of fear is good for growth.
Carousel Theatre’s artistic director Carole Higgins began her career in theatre in the teen program 25 years ago. Higgins is convinced that now more than ever the crafted language of Shakespeare is a much-needed antidote to our abridged, smartphone-addicted lives.
“I think as a society we are seeing language get more and more abbreviated. We are down to text messages these days. Very short attention spans as human beings,” said Higgins who has been artistic director at Carousel for 16 years. “That’s just where the world is heading. But Shakespeare and his contemporaries, their language is so rich and so dense and the thoughts are enormous. “I know Shakespeare can be intimidating to some (teenagers), but ... there’s a sense of accomplishment that comes with it.” Drama teacher Peter Beharry
There are giant emotional thoughts.”
And who better to talk about giant emotions than teenagers?
“They eat him up,” said Stack. “They see the ideas put forward and want to expand on them.” Star-crossed lovers anyone? “I say here’s what it is about. Romeo and Juliet are just two young people who meet at a party and within 30 seconds they’re making out,” said Stack. “Has that ever happened at a party you’ve been at?” And ... curtain.
‘Always weird stuff’ in outdoor theatre
You know how people get upset when a cellphone goes off in the theatre?
Well, imagine having to remember a Shakespearean soliloquy just as a group of raucous rovers goes by on a pirate ship.
Each summer that is just one of the distractions the young actors from Carousel Theatre for Young People’s Teen Shakespeare Program endure when they take to the outdoor stage on Granville Island for an annual show.
“Once a flock of geese walked across the stage,” said St. Germain. “We had to wait like 15 minutes for them to clear the stage. Last year we had a baby crow that was hanging out on our stage. There is always weird stuff.”
Barking dogs and crying babies are all part of the experience for the actors. So is playing to a new crowd not only on a nightly basis, but minute by minute.
“People can just come and walk through,” said St. Germain. “We’ve had groups of monks come and sit for half a play and leave. It’s always different. You come out after intermission and there can be a completely different audience.”
While things can get a bit busy for the young thespians, the show’s director points out today’s al fresco show is a walk in the park (literally) compared to the original mounting of Shakespeare’s earliest works.
“It’s probably a less distracting, quieter environment than Shakespeare dealt with,” said Stack, referring to Shakespeare’s rowdy outdoor shows with crowds of 3,000 or so people.
St. Germain, a five-year veteran of the program, says the key to avoid being rattled by an outside force — like an air ambulance flying directly overhead — is to be prepared.
“You have to know where you are supposed to be in the scene and what your attentions are in the scene,” said St. Germain. “Because the character isn’t on a stage in the middle of Granville Island. You are in battle with Henry V or you are in a palace. You have to really engage yourself in the scene.”
Much Ado About Nothing follows two love stories — one that is open and another that is secretive. The original play’s backdrop is 16th century Italy, but Carousel has taken a more modern approach and set it in the disco-themed 1970s.
“It ties right into the play and any chance you can spend some time with disco was OK by me,” said Stack. “It’s a fun time to set the play in.”