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Sword fights and sad tales? Must be Shakespeare
For kids: Every spring, students get to participate in a festival honoring the world's most influential playwright and poet.
from the June 5, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
Shakespeare wrote "All the world's a stage," and the streets of Denver became the stages for the students as they took their places at 11 outdoor locations.
There gentlemen engaged in sword fights, ladies told sad tales of broken hearts, noblemen shouted out joyful expressions of love, and fairies played tricks on people – as students performed short scenes from Shakespeare's plays.
Some were funny, some were sad, but each scene was alive with energy and excitement.
The stages were named after theaters that existed in Shakespeare's day – such as the Rose, Blackfriars, and the Globe.
Students had to project their voices over the sounds of noisy traffic from nearby streets, airplanes flying overhead, and crowds of people passing by. But these students were up to the challenge.
Still, it wasn't always easy, especially when adding the difficulties of acting. "It's hard getting the expression right," says Deja, who's in fifth grade at Teller Elementary. She performed in scenes from "Romeo and Juliet."
"Like when we were in the scene where Tybalt and Mercutio die," she explains. "We had to act all sad and stuff, but you're not really sad."
The challenges didn't dissuade students from participating – in fact, they seemed to add to the excitement and gave the kids the feeling that they had accomplished something.
Many students return to the festival every year, choosing to perform different scenes each time and taking on new characters, with new lines to memorize.
These kids love the fact that they are helping to keep Shakespeare's works alive.
"It's great to have a day to contribute to all that Shakespeare did," says Gaby, a seventh-grader at Moore Middle School who has been to the festival twice.
Learning to understand the language is well worth the time and effort, according to Alayah, a fifth-grader at Barrett Elementary.
She began rehearsing with her classmates five months before the festival.
"We read the lines, and at first we didn't understand," she says. "But then when you actually read it, you get interested in it and then you understand."
"It's amazing how quickly the students pick up on the language," says Teller Elementary teacher Joy Urbach. "I have parents who are often pretty surprised [at that and] tell me, 'I read that in high school, and I didn't understand it.' But these kids do. They get up on stage, and they really do know what they're saying."
She says she already has students asking what play they can do next year.
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