Shakesperience!

Today we went on a field trip, to Glendale, to see a 90-minute Shakespeare play, called "Shakesperience!" It was a program designed for middle (and probably some high) school students to introduce them to Shakespeare. It was pretty cool actually.

It was at the Alex Theater which is the cool old theater/movie house in downtown Glendale - down the street from the almost infamous Galleria. There were a lot of schools there and they all came on busses and were sat and fed by old lady ushers (sort of like Design for Sharing, for you Royce kids). The show itself was a selection of scenes, all "on the common theme of relations between a man and a woman," from the following five plays:

1) Romeo and Juliet
2) Taming of the Shrew
3) Macbeth
4) Hamlet
Interlude - a mocking of the Julius Caesar (the play we'll be reading next month) assassination scene
5) Midsummer Night's Dream

It was a pretty good show. The acting wasn't amazing, but it was solid. They really played more towards the broader comedy in all of the scenes, even the unfunny ones (like "Out Damned Spot!" or the fight between Romeo-Tybalt-Mercutio), which I think made it much more accessible to the kids, even if some of the subtleties of the scenes were lost. But, I'm a but of a purist (snob? A rose by any other name...).

The whole thing was tied together by a "narrator" character, assuming the role of Robin Goodfellow (the real name of "Puck") who was actually the actor playing the part. More often than not he would break the 4th wall, and talk, in street speak, to the audience. It was good 11-year old humor. There was some hip-hop music in there, as well as ending the show with a pretty neato Elizabethan style dance.

I really like field trips in general. One, they break the monotony of the day. Two, I get to spend time with the kids in a non-academic environment. Three, I get to wear a t-shirt.