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Seventh Spring Spectacle of Shakespeare Saturday at DePauw for local high shools
The DePauw University Department of Communication and Theater will host the seventh Spring Spectacle of Shakespeare this Saturday, May 5 in Moore Theatre of the Judson and Joyce Green Center for the Performing Arts.
The Saturday performances are the culminating event in a 12-week collaboration between Shakespeare & Company, DePauw and the four Putnam County schools.
The festival features four performances: Cloverdale Schools presenting “Much Ado About Nothing” at 1 p.m.; South Putnam Schools staging “Midsummer Night’s Dream” at 3 p.m.; North Putnam Schools putting on “As You Like It” at 5 p.m.; and Greencastle Schools staging “Merry Wives of Windsor” at 7 p.m.
“I clearly remember the ‘ah-ha’ moment of discovery that DePauw should copy Shakespeare & Company’s long-running and lauded program, the Fall Festival of Shakespeare,” details Gigi Jennewein, the program director.
“I was attending a training program with The Company in Lenox, Mass., in January 2010 listening over dinner to our revered mentor, Kevin Coleman, talk about his festival,” she added. “The idea to bring local county schools together in a collaborative vs. competitive way through the texts of Shakespeare intrigued me. The possibility of embracing an artistic philosophy that gives participants direct ownership in the creative process excited me.”
Coleman, director of education at Shakespeare & Company, completed on-campus residencies training DePauw students in the “Shakespeare in the Schools” course, which gives them essential tools for directing the plays in the county schools.
Coleman also presented workshops for students and faculty, designed to provide helpful insights for understanding and performing Shakespeare. Many took advantage of the Clown Workshop, a Monologue Workshop and a“Feeding-In” Rehearsal Method Workshop.
Over its 40-year history Shakespeare & Company has honed a successful approach to bringing Shakespeare alive for young people.
“This approach to teaching Shakespeare changes everything,” Coleman explains. “Reading and discussing your interpretation of his works in class has a very short shelf life. When you do Shakespeare and actually get serious about treating a play as if it were a play and treating a script as a script, it tends to stay with you for the rest of your life. When you do these parts, when you say these words, think these thoughts and feel these feelings, you embody them and move around on stage, and then it becomes a part of who you are,” Coleman says. “It’s not just something you remember.”
Shakespeare & Company’s Fall Festival of Shakespeare has been replicated at several theatre companies and a few universities across the country. DePauw is an early adopter of the program and has adapted the Fall Festival to meet the schedules and skills of university students.
Whereas the Fall Festival employs young, professional actors and directors, some of the DePauw students are studying theater and some are not; and some have no experience with Shakespeare, acting or teaching. All, however, do have an interest in working with younger students and are passionate about community engagement.
Tickets to the Spring Spectacle of Shakespeare are available online at https://www.depauw.edu/arts-and-culture/arts/theatre.
Festival passes are $10 for general admission and $5 for students. Each pass allows patrons to attend all four shows.