The Benefit of The Shakespeare Festival

The Shakespeare Festival is a really great experience where college students are able to go into high school classrooms to direct a scene from a Shakespeare play. This allows the high school students and the college students both to connect more with Shakespeare. By performing Shakespeare, a new understanding and appreciation are formed. The college students are assigned a class to mentor and direct. They go into the classroom once a week and work with the students to interpret and perform Shakespeare. In the classroom, the mentors work with the students to better understand the language of Shakespeare and put together a coherent performance. At the end of the semester, all of the high school students travel to Frostburg State University to perform their scenes. The entire semester leads up to this day, and it’s a surreal moment. The students work extremely hard to put together the scene and they do amazing during the festival.

Oftentimes, there is a lot of apathy the students have towards Shakespeare and the festival. At first, none of the students really want to be a part of the scene. In order to help them be more engaged in the performance, it’s important to keep them involved in every decision and interpretation. Whenever there is something new to block or something that needed to be interpreted, the students should be asked what they think. They all have ideas for the blocking. It’s a process of trying out the ideas and figuring out which ones work and which ones do not. By including them in the decision making, they are more willing and excited to be a part of the process. By the end, almost all of the students are actively engaged in the performance. They genuinely enjoy being a part of the festival, and this is partly because the performance becomes theirs. They help to create the performance and their ideas create the blocking. They want to see it succeed, so it does.

Through the Shakespeare Festival, the high school students gain a better understanding of Shakespeare as well as how to work as a team. The primary takeaway that the students get from the festival is a deeper and better understanding of Shakespeare. In the beginning, the students don’t know much about Shakespeare and his language. They are often confused by some of the words used. After discussing the words and the context they are used in, the students are able to understand the language and what is going on in the scene. By performing the scene, the students get the opportunity to feel the language instead of simply reading it. This allows them to get a better grasp of the concepts in the scene and have a better understanding of what is going on. They can use this better understanding and apply it to any other work of Shakespeare. They also gain the skills and knowledge necessary to work as a team. The students at the beginning tend to be very separated and disorganized. They have a difficult time determining who should do what and what they want to do with the scene. It’s important to take time to listen to what they want to do with the scene. By giving them the opportunities to share ideas, they are able to effectively work as a team to accomplish an amazing performance. The festival provides them with the ideal opportunity and situation they need to work very well as a fully functioning group.

The student mentors also gain a lot from the Shakespeare Festival. They gain more and better leadership skills. They learn how to be more patient with people while directing and working with high school students. When the students don’t want to listen or participate, it can feel impossible to get anything done. Through this project, the mentors get the opportunity to learn how to be more patient and understanding. They learn patience and that the ideas of others have immense value. Due to the festival, the mentors are able to grow as a people and as leaders.

The Shakespeare Festival is an amazing project. It allows college students to get experience in a classroom, giving them leadership skills and a better understanding of high school students. It gives high school students the opportunity to develop a coherent understanding of Shakespeare and his literature. It also gives them the opportunity to branch out and embrace new things. This program is really amazing from start to finish. The students at both levels get to explore their creativity and channel it into something fun. This program is helping to keep Shakespeare alive in both high school and college students. It shows that Shakespeare is fun, and it brings together many great minds. The Shakespeare Festival is a great program that gives many opportunities and skills to many different students.

The Shakespeare Festival is offered in the spring semester at Frostburg State University by Dr. Rochelle Smith. However, she is on sabbatical this year, so the festival class will not be offered Spring of 2019. This is an amazing class and opportunity, so if you have a chance to take this class at some point, consider doing it.