MEDINA, Ohio – When students in Stephani Itibrout’s Advanced Placement Literature and Composition classes headed over to the Medina High School Performing Arts Center to watch a professional production of “Romeo and Juliet” today, they probably had a new appreciation for the actors.
That’s because they have spent the past week in those actors’ shoes, staging scenes from “Hamlet” in their own classrooms.
Medina High School seniors, from left, Zach Hager, Jason King and Marin Auth strike a pose under the direction of Great Lakes Theater Festival Shakespeare Residency instructor Luke Brett.Ann Norman, special to cleveland.com
Students in the 10th grade honors language arts classes also got a taste of the thespian life as they worked on excerpts from “MacBeth.”
The annual Great Lakes Theater Festival residency at the high school shakes up students’ pre-conceptions about William Shakespeare and his plays, bringing the great literature to life and making its themes more relatable to teenagers.
In Itibrout’s period 8/9 class on Wednesday, Great Lakes Theater actors Luke Brett and Chennelle Bryant-Harris coaxed energetic performances out of the students.
It didn’t take much more than a prop tiara or a bunch of plastic roses to transform modern teens into the kings and queens of yesteryear.
Bryant-Harris herded one group of actors into the hallway to work on dialogue, while Brett put another group through the paces of acting out “Hamlet’s” Dumb Show scene – in which the actors don’t speak, but the audience provides the sound effects.
The stars of the Dumb Show – Jason King as the faux Claudius, Marin Auth as faux Gertrude and Zach Hager as Hamlet’s doomed father – first practiced warming up to perform.
The king, played by Zach Hager, writhes in pain after being poisoned by his usurper for both the throne and love, as portrayed by Jason King.Ann Norman, special to cleveland.com
“How would you get ready?” Brett asked.
“I would awkwardly talk to myself to get into character,” Jason said. “I might try a maniacal laugh.”
Zach opted for tongue twisters and Marin decided to trill like one of the characters in “High School Musical.”
The actors then worked out their silent miming of the scene while the rest of the class came up with sound effects to underscore the action. These ranged from gasps and yawns to snippets from pop music such as “All the Single Ladies” and “I Will Always Love You.”
As they prepared, Brett asked the kids what they thought the characters’ motivations might have been and how the students might have responded in their place.
They also talked about Hamlet’s motivation for staging the Dumb Show for his mother and stepfather, Queen Gertrude and King Claudius, and whether they thought he was successful in casting aspersions on the king.
“You all are a treat,” Bryant-Harris told the students after they finished the scene.
After a few token rejections, the queen (Marin Auth) accepts her suitor’s (Jason King) declarations of love, as students in Stephani Itibrout’s AP Literature and Composition class at Medina High School act out a scene from “Hamlet.”Ann Norman, special to cleveland.com
“It’s just fun to see them react,” Brett said after class had ended for the day.
Acting out the plays instead of just reading them gives students a fresh perspective on the material, he said.
It also provides a different perspective for professional actors who are used to being on stage rather than behind the scenes, drawing performances out of the students.
“If they can relate to Shakespeare after this, or pick up any book or go to a play, then we have done our job,” Bryant-Harris said.
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