Many a high school or college student has agonized over reading the plays of Shakespeare, but the students working on Dartmouth's Shakespeare Project are helping some kids to get ahead by introducing them to Shakespeare early -- in elementary school.
"It's a new area for START, " said Liza Tedeschi '95, a junior intern for Student Teachers in the Arts, and Director of the new Shakespeare in the Schools Project.
START , part of Hopkins Center Outreach and Arts Education, is a program which brings Dartmouth students into local schools to work with children. "It's tailored to whatever the student wants to bring into that school," said START's senior intern, Jennifer Javornik '95, who coordinates the program.
Dartmouth students who participate in START currently teach music, dance, and creative writing in 11 regional schools, and now the Shakespeare Project has been added to this list.
According to Professor of Drama Ariel Bock, the nine-week project will take 60 fifth and sixth graders from Plainfield Elementary School and have them perfoming "Macbeth" by December 8. Bock, the Shakespeare Project's mentor, cofounded a drama pilot program in schools ten years ago through the Massachusetts Shakespeare Co. She meets with the student-teachers once a week to discuss how the teaching techniques are working and how to progress.
Techniques include acting warm-ups, which cover such things as voice, stage movement, and cues, an arts and crafts day when the children will create "the world" of "Macbeth," and other group exercises to familiarize them with the characters and language of Shakespeare.
Bock says that the program's primary intent is to help kids "express themselves in language." Though the original script is cut, there is no paraphrasing. Said Bock, "That gives a message to the kids that they have to change it to understand it, [but] that they can relate to the feelings expressed in Shakespeare."
Bock added that the Shakespeare Project is trying to instill an appreciation for plays in the children, so that Shakespeare will not be just a "boring, old thing. There are lots of ways of exciting them," she said.
The costumes are made by the kids and their parents, and no major character is played by only one child. The costume is passed on to another for the next scene so that there are no stars. Along with the December 8 performance in the evening, the kids will also put on the play during the school day for their peers.
"The schools tell [Dartmouth] to bring whatever [talent] you can," said Javornik. "Dartmouth has a rich community, and some of these schools have nothing. It's a big responsibility for the student-teachers."
Many College students who participate in START's programs are also majoring in the arts, and the program can help them learn a "technique for [teaching in] any school," said Bock.
The Shakespeare Project is unique among START's other projects because the students have a mentor. Bock says she can point them in the right direction or help them "simplify an acting warm-up so that a 10 year-old will like it. One of the things we're developing is the sense of being a team, not teacher and pupils."
Bock was mostly in charge on the first day of the project last Tuesday, but the students will take over the teaching, often breaking the children into smaller groups to work on the script with one student acting as director for each group.
According to Tedeschi, the Shakespeare Project is planning to expand next term and include more schools in the area. Javornik is trying to get even more student involvement in START. "The schools are so grateful to have Dartmouth students come in," she said.
