The works of playwright William Shakespeare are often seen as a daunting challenge by modern audiences. Complaints are mostly focused on the language.
However, at a five-day camp in Parkers Chapel, students ranging from age 7 to 17 were tasked with learning an abbreviated version of “Romeo and Juliet” to perform the classic play in front of a crowd.
The group of about 30 students worked with Texan directors hal evans, who does not capitalize any letters in his name, and Tracy Elizabeth Hults starting on July 30. The two said Monday was all about team building work and getting to know the students before breaking out the scripts Tuesday after lunch.
“We opened the whole camp with no auditions,” evans said. “Instead we played games for three hours Monday morning and the games have a way of group building and we’re focusing on the dynamic of ensemble. While they’re playing with each other, we see who should play what character. It casts itself.”
By Friday night, the students performed a brief sketch called “Quoting Shakespeare” which discussed some of the over 17,000 words Shakespeare created over the course of his career as a writer.
They went on to do an abbreviated version of “Romeo and Juliet,” followed by a scene that mixed Romeo’s window monologue with one recited by Lady MacBeth.
The hour-long performance concluded with another version of “Romeo and Juliet” written by evans called “Rodeo and Juliet: an Italian Western,” with is an American southern version of the original play. This took the essence of the original story and put it in the context of an old-style western with two warring families.
The camp, which was open to all students in Union County regardless of what school they go to, was organized by Parkers Chapel English teacher Tracye Couture.
Couture met evans and Hults at Poetry Out Loud in March. When the Arkansas Arts Council discussed wanting to bring more programs to southern Arkansas, evans and Couture started talking about a Shakespeare camp.
“These people are awesome,” Couture said. “They are putting on a Shakespeare presentation and its pretty awesome. We’re really proud of it.”
As part of organizing the camp, Couture requested a grant from the Mid-American Arts Alliance to help pay for expenses such as travel costs for evans and Hults.
The whole camp wasn’t just about drama, evans said, but it also helped teach the students about teamwork, literacy and personal character development.
“The beauty of this group is that the older students, they’ve been patient,” evans said. “They probably treat the younger kids here better than they do their own brothers and sisters. That’s part of the ensamble thing. If we were doing “Annie,” we wouldn’t have the girl who played Annie take the last bow because the person who played Janitor No. 1 is just as important. We only take ensamble bows.”
These other elements of the camp weren’t lost on the students.
“I liked the fellowship, all the friends learning new things and just being able to act,” said Hannah Hickman, 14, who played Juliet.
Some of the students had other acting experiences while some had never been on stage before.
“Personally, I enjoy it (being on stage) a lot,” said Breanna Kilgore, 17, who played Lady Capulet. “Because I’m comfortable on stage. That’s me being comfortable portraying the character. It’s like me being somebody else. It’s comfortable. I don’t really know how to explain it.”
These students find that topics such as Shakespeare can have an impact in the local community and benefit it.
“It’s like we’re in a bubble in the south, but when we have other people expose us to Shakespeare and all these things, it opens your eyes.” Kilgore said.
Hults and evans have done similar camps in states from Texas to Illinois, working with school-age students in various situations including those serving time.
“It always amazes me, no matter how many of these that we do, that we can meet a group and we just help mold them,” Hults said. “It’s already there, the talent, the focus, the determination. It’s already in the students. It’s just a matter of how do we help them actualize that. How do we help them reach that goal and see it in themselves.”
Michael Shine may be reached at 870-862-6611 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter and like him on Facebook @MichaelAZShine for updates on Union County school news.
