Comments on: Teaching Shakespeare to Children – A Fruitful and Possible Endeavor http://www.mommytopics.com/parenting/teaching-shakespeare-to-children-a-fruitful-and-possible-endeavor Tue, 07 Sep 2010 01:27:23 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Emmaline http://www.mommytopics.com/parenting/teaching-shakespeare-to-children-a-fruitful-and-possible-endeavor/comment-page-1#comment-3387 Emmaline Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:24:04 +0000 http://www.mommytopics.com/?p=103#comment-3387 Hello, I just read your article, and I must say I agree wholeheartedly about the importance of Shakespeare in schools. Luckily, learning Shakespeare in my town and schools have never been problems, because we have teachers who love his works and want us to enjoy them too. Even in a school nearby, they have a Shakespeare class, where the entire semester is dedicated to studying his plays and sonnets. Also, in my town, there is a Shakespeare theater group - which is the main point of my comment. The Young Shakespeare Players (which I am a part of) in which kids ages 7-18 perform unabridged, uncut works of Shakespeare with more understanding, eagerness, and energy than adults who have been more studied (I am 15). It is owned by perhaps the greatest Shakespeare analysit alive in the U.S. today - Richard DiPrima. The goal of the program is to help kids understand that the works of Shakespeare are not 'dull' or 'above them', but that they are accessable and fun. There are about 5 performances of Shakespeare a year, a couple works of Shaw, and isolated workshops focusing on measure, rhyme, poetry, and imagery of the Bard. The program is almost entirely kid run, having multiple casts in several hour morning and afternoon rehearsals. In each rehearsal period, we have more experienced "apprentice directors" (who also are parts in the plays) to keep everyone focused, and one floating adult director, which sometimes isn't even at rehearsal. By having mulitple casts, kids can be the directors and give comments and critiques on eachothers performance in each scene. The way everyone understands the plays so deeply, is Richard creates tapes of him explaining in detail all aspects of your part(s), so you can understand what you are saying, why you are saying it, and what it means, etc., and creates a lines only tape - which has him reading all of the lines of your part(s) so you get the general idea of what it sounds like. Then it's up to you to bring that to the stage. This type of program, which puts responsability on us kids involved, as well as the knowledge that we are doing what not many people can do (reading Shakespeare with depth, understanding, and maturity), gives us a sense of maturity, and makes us want to do this more. I know 7 year olds in the YSP more involved in the theater than 17 year olds also invested. I have only been in this for one summer, but I'm currently playing the roles of Lady Macduff, Angus, Donalbain, Soldier/Messenger, and 1st Apparition in Macbeth, and Hermia and a Fairy in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and I'm going to be doing a Focused workshop next winter, and hopefully Othello in the fall (I want to be Desdemona!). In addition to ALL of this, My favorite books are Hamlet, The comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, and Macbeth. Shakespeares themes and plays are contsant topics of talks, debates, and analysis' between my friends and me. The point of this (incredibly long [sorry about that]) reply is that I wanted to explain to you that although schools have decided that the Bard is 'above' students, There are programs that exist that show kids how fun it is. YSP is nationally acclaimed, and everyone in it is invested, and show more talent and potential than even many professional Shakespearean actors today. We are those that give hope to continuing the beauty of the Bards language. Like the YSP motto states, and a famous quote from the play Henry V: "We few, we happy few"... Hello, I just read your article, and I must say I agree wholeheartedly about the importance of Shakespeare in schools. Luckily, learning Shakespeare in my town and schools have never been problems, because we have teachers who love his works and want us to enjoy them too. Even in a school nearby, they have a Shakespeare class, where the entire semester is dedicated to studying his plays and sonnets.
Also, in my town, there is a Shakespeare theater group – which is the main point of my comment. The Young Shakespeare Players (which I am a part of) in which kids ages 7-18 perform unabridged, uncut works of Shakespeare with more understanding, eagerness, and energy than adults who have been more studied (I am 15). It is owned by perhaps the greatest Shakespeare analysit alive in the U.S. today – Richard DiPrima. The goal of the program is to help kids understand that the works of Shakespeare are not ‘dull’ or ‘above them’, but that they are accessable and fun. There are about 5 performances of Shakespeare a year, a couple works of Shaw, and isolated workshops focusing on measure, rhyme, poetry, and imagery of the Bard.
The program is almost entirely kid run, having multiple casts in several hour morning and afternoon rehearsals. In each rehearsal period, we have more experienced “apprentice directors” (who also are parts in the plays) to keep everyone focused, and one floating adult director, which sometimes isn’t even at rehearsal. By having mulitple casts, kids can be the directors and give comments and critiques on eachothers performance in each scene.
The way everyone understands the plays so deeply, is Richard creates tapes of him explaining in detail all aspects of your part(s), so you can understand what you are saying, why you are saying it, and what it means, etc., and creates a lines only tape – which has him reading all of the lines of your part(s) so you get the general idea of what it sounds like. Then it’s up to you to bring that to the stage.
This type of program, which puts responsability on us kids involved, as well as the knowledge that we are doing what not many people can do (reading Shakespeare with depth, understanding, and maturity), gives us a sense of maturity, and makes us want to do this more. I know 7 year olds in the YSP more involved in the theater than 17 year olds also invested.

I have only been in this for one summer, but I’m currently playing the roles of Lady Macduff, Angus, Donalbain, Soldier/Messenger, and 1st Apparition in Macbeth, and Hermia and a Fairy in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and I’m going to be doing a Focused workshop next winter, and hopefully Othello in the fall (I want to be Desdemona!).

In addition to ALL of this, My favorite books are Hamlet, The comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, and Macbeth. Shakespeares themes and plays are contsant topics of talks, debates, and analysis’ between my friends and me.

The point of this (incredibly long [sorry about that]) reply is that I wanted to explain to you that although schools have decided that the Bard is ‘above’ students, There are programs that exist that show kids how fun it is. YSP is nationally acclaimed, and everyone in it is invested, and show more talent and potential than even many professional Shakespearean actors today. We are those that give hope to continuing the beauty of the Bards language. Like the YSP motto states, and a famous quote from the play Henry V: “We few, we happy few”…

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