On Sept. 12 three senior classes participated in the Stratford Festival鱿鱼视频app Teaching Shakespeare Program which places a teaching artist into the classroom and pulls students out of their desks to work through sections of the Bard鱿鱼视频app works.
鈥淲e always think about Shakespeare in terms of text ... (but) it was intended to be performed,鈥� said Michelle Donoghue-Stanford, the teacher who ushered the program into St. Angela鱿鱼视频app. 鈥淭herefore students should be playing it and not studying from a text. That doesn鈥檛 mean don鈥檛 use the text, that doesn鈥檛 mean don鈥檛 take a piece of text and study it, but first connect to the text.鈥�
It鱿鱼视频app that line of thinking which led the Stratford Festival to expand its existing high school teaching program into elementary schools five years ago. At the elementary level students work through vocal exercises, perform tableau or freeze-frame sections of the play and rehearse excerpts from a selected work which they will see live on the Stratford stage at a later date.
Alison Dion, the teaching artist who visited St. Angela鱿鱼视频app, said the program seeks to meet the festival鱿鱼视频app mandate to have all Ontario students see a play at Stratford before they graduate.
鈥淚t鱿鱼视频app about more than attendance, it鱿鱼视频app about more than bums in the seats,鈥� said Dion. 鈥淚 really feel that it is our responsibility as actors in Canada today to create a new audience. I want to get kids excited about theatres because it is my passion.鈥�
Dion said too many students are turned off of Shakespeare because of how it is presented to them in the classroom. It even happened to her.
鈥淔or me it was presented in a way that just didn鈥檛 fire me up,鈥� she said. 鈥淭o me Shakespeare was words on a page. Shakespeare never wrote these plays intending them to be read, he never intended them to be books, he intended them to be plays, live things to be seen.鈥�
Donoghue-Stanford, who has teenagers of her own, knows the struggles for students as both a parent and teacher. That鱿鱼视频app why she wanted to get this program into St. Angela鱿鱼视频app four years ago.
鈥淚 thought I could help the students here at St. Angela鱿鱼视频app by introducing them to Shakespeare in a fun way so that when they went to high school they could make some kind of connection that they remembered in an interesting way and say maybe Shakespeare isn鈥檛 so bad. If you have identified with a Shakespeare play and made a connection you are more open to allowing that invitation to happen again.鈥�
One of her former students, Austin Martinn-Rovalino, is a Grade 10 student at Father Henry Carr Catholic School. He said he鱿鱼视频app seen the positive impacts from participating in the program.
鈥淚t鱿鱼视频app already helped me out,鈥� he said. 鈥淓ven last year when I was in Grade 9 and we started the Romeo and Juliet unit, there were a few of my classmate who had also done the program and right away we were like, 鈥極h yeah, it鱿鱼视频app Shakespeare.鈥� 鈥�
The program also served a more immediate benefit for Martinn-Rovalino, who admitted to being a bit of an introvert during his St. Angela鱿鱼视频app days.
鈥淚t allowed me to actually get to know people that I didn鈥檛 usually hang out with much in a different way,鈥� he said. 鈥淪ometimes I鈥檓 not the most social person and this got me to break out of my shell.鈥�
His former teacher also sees this as a positive spin off of the program and it is part of the reason why she鱿鱼视频app so passionate about it.
鈥淥nce they start to see kids that they maybe look up to or may have been intimidated by in the past ... they realize this is OK and this is really safe,鈥� she said.