All the world's a stage

The Spring Spectacle of Shakespeare is a collaboration between the eight middle and high schools in Putnam County and DePauw University. The students have been working for the past 12 weeks, practicing their lines and getting to know the Bard of Avon's works. The students have spent the past week in tech week working out all the last-minute kinks in the productions. Samantha Flanery, Colton Cox and Alex Moore play out a scene from "Julius Caesar," which North Putnam will be performing on Saturday.

"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages." --William Shakespeare

Almost every high schooler in the United States has read the famous Bard of Avon's work. Others, though, get the chance to fully experience Shakespeare's work as it was meant to be, acted out.

DePauw University has collaborated with Putnam County high schools and middle schools to bring Shakespeare's work to life on stage this weekend.

Amy Hayes, the advisor for the DePauw class that teams up university students with local schools to teach and direct the plays, was excited to have all the schools participating in the third year of the program.

The program is based off of teachings from Shakespeare and Company, based out of Lenox, Mass. The theater company collaborated with DePauw on this venture to bring Shakespeare into the schools.

"It makes sense to put on these plays in schools," Hayes commented, "they (the students) get to meet Shakespeare on his own terms."

The Spring Spectacle of Shakespeare is a 12-week collaboration between DePauw and area high and middle schools to bring the works of Shakespeare to students. While other students merely read characters' lines during English class, the students participating get a chance to find the character that they are portraying.

"(I) like the program a lot," Alex Asbell, a Greencastle High School veteran of the program for the past three years, commented. "It makes Shakespeare less intimidating and breathes new life into it."

This is a non-competitive festival that allows students to participate in an activity that is different from other after-school involvement. The spectacle helps change not only the students' perception, but the directors' as well.

The DePauw students who act as directors for the plays also stated how much the program has made their college experience all the better.

"It's fantastic to see the growth of the program," Will Freske, a senior at DePauw and also a three-year veteran of the program, said.

Freske was also highly impressed with how much the students in the program had grown as individuals.

"Some (students) couldn't even talk in front of our (Greencastle) group when they started," Freske laughed a bit. "Now they are going to be performing in front of 300 people. They might not know it, but that is what they are going to do."

In the three years since the start of the spectacle, it has grown from one school putting on scenes from different plays to encompassing all eight of Putnam County's middle and high schools.

"My friend got me involved," Rachael Mboga, a Cloverdale school student in the program, stated. "It is also a chance to face my fears."

Like Mboga many of today's participants learned about the program through friends that spoke highly of it from past years. For those at South Putnam this was their first year to participate in the production.

Amanda Feller, director of the South Putnam group, helped encourage actors to get through their lines with pieces of candy for remembering all of them. She also approached her students in a different way than most do when teaching.

"Here we are asking them (students) what they think about their characters," Feller stated, "instead of like in school and telling them what they (the characters) should be."

Feller and the other directors were all happy working with the students and helping them to learn about Shakespeare.

"Not only are you acting and understanding Shakespeare," Christan Montgomery, an actor in North Putnam's production, explained, "it comes to life."

The Spring Spectacle of Shakespeare will take place on Friday, May 3 with Greencastle High and Middle Schools presenting "Much Ado About Nothing" at 6 p.m. and then Cloverdale High and Middle Schools will present "The Tempest" at 8 p.m.

The spectacle will continue on Saturday, May 4 with South Putnam Middle and High Schools presenting "Henry V" at 6 p.m. and North Putnam High and Middle Schools will finish at 8 p.m. with "Julius Caesar." All performances will be at Moore Theatre in the Green Center for Performing Arts at DPU.