Our Year of Shakespeare

For those of you who saw our Twelfth Night performance in April, thanks for supporting us! Here is the background to the event.
Last summer my friend Charlotte decided that she wanted to go to the Shakespeare training done by LEMI. Since I’d  been to some of the Shakespeare plays done by another LEMI Shakespeare group I was interested as well. However, with Nigel reaching toddlerhood this year, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to do it. But long story short, I did go to the training last July and then, taking one step at a time, I ended up being Charlotte’s assistant and the director for our play in April. (Charlotte was the producer, costume and scenery manager plus lots of other parts. We also recruited other parents to take on other key roles.)

So here we started out the year. All the kids were supposed to do a presentation or two on Elizabethan topics.Charlotte and I gave our presentations first to show the kids what we expected of them.

Here I gave my presentation: Shakespeare’s sources or Shakespeare the plagiarist. (Notice Ian holding Nigel while I did my part. Ian was extremely helpful!)

Lisette gave two presentations.

Her first presentation included an Elizabethan funeral procession. (Show above.) Her second presentation was on the four humors, blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile. (Shown below.)

Miles did a presentation on English geography. He baked a nice gingerbread cookie of England as a visual aid.

The kids were also supposed to “experience” at least 7 of Shakespeare’s plays. All fourteen of our students got to 7, and a hard-working few got  to 17, at which point they could be crowned king or queen. Lisette and Miles both made it to 17! Here is a picture of Lisette’s coronation ceremony and Miles in his crown.

“Experiencing” the plays could be reading, listening, watching a live play or watching a movie. We did some of all of these options. Also, to encourage those who needed a little extra, we had six Shakespeare movie parties at our house.

We also had lessons on Shakespearean literature and discussed Julius Caesar together.

 
Fun with iambic pentameter

For our parent’s night in December we did a 15-minute version of Julius Caesar.

Lisette, as Casca, with Brutus and Cassius.

In January we started reading and discussing Twelfth Night, and we also started acting lessons.

Finally, at the end of February we did auditions for Twelfth Night and in March we started rehearsals
 
Lisette and friends act cool.
 

Rehearsal on Charlotte's back porch.

We rehearsed on Charlotte’s back porch and inside when it rained. Later we moved rehearsals to her driveway because it more accurately reflected the stage dimensions. Charlotte’s neighbors already thought her family was crazy, now they are sure!

Finally, we were able to move to the stage at Draper Historic Theater. Lisette, with her painted beard and mustache, was Malvolio. Here she arrives in her yellow stockings, cross-gartered!

 
Ian, looking good in his priest’s beard, arrives to marry Olivia to Sebastian. Ian wasn’t an official member of our Shakespeare group, but he attended so many of our meetings that we had to persuade him to take a part.(He was actually kind of hard to persuade.) He had two scenes and two lines.

Miles, as Fabian, flees Malvolio, who is sure possessed. His wild friend, Sir Toby leads the way.

Many thanks to our audience members! Also thanks to Eric for taking half a day off every Thursday for two month for rehearsals and to Karen for babysitting Nigel and Saffy for the other rehearsals!

Now, to finish off the Shakespeare year, Lisette and Miles are off to Shakespeare Showdown, a Shakespeare camp where about 14 other Shakespeare groups from the state perform for each other. Looking back on the year, I’m actually pretty amazed!