Making Shakespeare approachable in Stratford
Nonprofit uses grant to bring actors affiliated with the Bard work to schools
STRATFORD — The physicality of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is such that an auditorium full of seventh- and eighth-graders didn’t need to know Shakespearean English to follow along with the pratfalls, onstage costume changes and fanciful plot twists.
“Eventually, you get the hang of it,” said Yarisa Tejada, 12, one of 30 students who stayed behind on Monday, after the Wooster Middle School auditorium cleared out, for a workshop in acting.
“The goal is to make Shakespeare fun and approachable,” said Kelly Letourneau, the educational and community outreach director for the Mighty Quinn Foundation. “Shake- speare was written to be watched, performed and listened to. I hope at least these kids will say Shakespeare isn’t so scary.”
A group that runs a summerlong Shakespeare Academy for college students on the grounds of the town’s shuttered Shakespeare Theater, the nonprofit Quinn Foundation received a $5,000 grant from the Stratford Rotary Club to bring five actors affiliated with the ensemble to three schools in Stratford and one in West Haven this month.
Wooster was their last stop. “They have been rambunctious in all the best ways,” Letourneau said. She knew the audiences were getting it when one student at West Haven High, called out “snitch,” when Helena tells Demetrius about Hermia and Lysander’s plan to elope.
At Wooster, many of the students who participated in the post-production workshop had been on stage before, but not all.
“I wanted to, but I got stage fright,” said John Santiago, 12, who said he reads a lot of Shakespeare.
On this day, the seventh-grader joined in a large circle as the students’ actor/teachers, most based in New York City, taught the rudiments of eye contact, following directions and connecting to one another.
“You have to learn to work as a team,” Letourneau, originally from Worcester, Mass., told them.
They learned warm-up exercises and how to move about the stage as if they were on a raft trying not to make it tip over.
They were directed to jump, clap, go and stop on command. Then they practiced doing the opposite of what they were told.
“We are bringing it to the next level,” Letourneau told them. “When I say ‘clap,’ you jump.”
“Oh, God,” one student blurted out as the pace got faster.
Actress Meaghan Johnson, from Colorado, taught the students the Shakespearean difference between “thou,” and “you.”
Much to the circle’s surprise, they learned “thou” is an informal way to address someone who is close. “You,” is reserved for those you don’t really know, say, someone across the circle.
The exercise quickly became a game of elimination, with ‘thous” and “yous” shot across the circumference like daggers. Eventually arm-crossing “nays” were thrown in for the fun of it.
Laila McCoy, 8th 13, groaned when she was eliminated, but quickly took of the role of a spoiler, whispering suggestions to remaining players.
“It’s interesting,” McCoy declared of Shakespeare in general.
Fatima Anaza, an actress from Houston, led an exercise in all the different ways to express the word “Oh.”
As Quince, one of the characters she played in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Anaza shouts: “Oh monstrous!”
The circle then took turns changing the tone of their “Oh” leaving fellow students to guess if it was a shy, disappointed and even salty “Oh.”
Erin Williams, a New York City actress originally from Stratford (she attended St. Mark’s School and Bunnell High) called the workshops amazing.
“I hope that it continues,” she said.
Letourneau said that depends on future funding. The schools that were visited all said “yes” this year, because there was no cost to them.