The Tablet, 1/20/07  Vol 99, No 43
http://www.dioceseofbrooklyn.org/tablet/01202007/youth.html

Shakespeare ACTion in Local Schools

By Marie Elena Giossi

Schools full of students who are excited to learn about Shakespeare may sound like a midsummer night’s dream to many teachers but these students do exist – and they’re right here in the Brooklyn Diocese.

William Shakespeare’s works have long gotten a bad reputation for being boring, outdated and inaccessible. That’s why the professional actors, directors and teachers from Stages on the Sound are working to vindicate the literary world’s most beloved bard and bring life back to his timeless words.

“There’s such a stigma about Shakespeare. By the time a student gets to read him in seventh grade, the words sit on the page and there’s really nothing alive about it,” said Scott Barrow, a professional actor and theatre teacher who serves as director of education for Stages on the Sound.

Shakespeare, Barrow notes, “wasn’t meant to be read. It was meant to be seen and even more important, to be heard.”
Stages on the Sound is a not-for-profit corporation, established in 2005, on a mission to offer educational enrichment and live theatrical productions that engage students’ spirits, minds and imaginations. They endeavor to foster creativity, interest in the fine arts and teach students that Shakespeare is really “engaging and alive. That’s what the goal is,” said Barrow.

Last fall, through a pilot program sponsored by Dr. Thomas Chadzutko, diocesan superintendent of schools, Stages on the Sound was able to bring its program, Shakespeare in ACTion, to five diocesan elementary schools: Our Lady of Perpetual Help, S. Ozone Park; St. Rita, East New York; Presentation BVM, Jamaica; St. Joseph, Astoria; and St. Ann, Flushing.

“I thought it was an opportunity to expose students to different concepts of learning, to look at the arts through performance provides a new dimension of learning,” said Dr. Chadzutko, who learned about the program from Robert Choiniere, diocesan director of pastoral planning and managing director for Stages on the Sound.

“The feedback from the principals and the students has been very positive,” added the superintendent, who said he’d be willing to sponsor this “active learning” progarm at more diocesan schools.

Shakespeare in ACTion includes a 45-minute humorous and easy to understand presentation of Shakespeare’s greatest hits, including an Elizabethan history lesson, Shakespeare’s biography and performances from a few of his greatest scenes.

Barrow notes that students easily identify with an Everyman character who hates Shakespeare, while other characters in the show expose him (and students) to all the great things about Shakespeare. As the Everyman transitions into a fan, students do as well.

Following the performance, actors conduct 45-minute classroom workshops during which small groups of students craft and perform their own abstract renditions of classic Shakespearean scenes.

Young actors and actresses aren’t limited to a street in Verona as the setting for their skits. They can and have selected locations as diverse as Chuck E. Cheese, Times Square and a graveyard.

When students set the scenes “in their world, it’s not as foreign,” according to Barrow. “Shakespeare is not something in the 16th century. It’s something now.”

These workshops allow students to work in groups, develop decision-making skills, learn to think extemporaneously and most importantly, be creative.

“As a student, I hated Shakespeare. I loathed it. In my 20s, I began to understand it. I realized how rewarding it is and how much time I had lost (by not understanding it),” Barrow said.

Stages on the Sound generally charges $1,000 for a full day, including a performance and custom workshops; $650 for a half-day performance, and $550 for a half day of workshops. Programs and fees can be adjusted to suit an individual school’s budget.

While Shakespeare in ACTion is geared toward middle school-age and high school-age students, the organization also has a Children’s Theatre Program for younger students.

Stages on the Sound has previously and continues to perform in the public school district and libraries in Huntington, L.I. They also offer writing and stage combat workshops and are willing to tailor their programs for any audience.

Barrow hopes that in addition to one-day workshops, some schools might be interested in intensive week-long, month-long or semester-long residency programs.

Barrow’s hope is to bring Stages into as many schools as possible and eventually, gather the schools together to have student-actors present an evening of Shakespearean scenes.

For information about bringing Stages on the Sound to your school, contact Scott Barrow at 516-496-1905 or scott@stagesonthesound.com.