Posted on 07/02/2005 10:07:22 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Thousands of British school children are taking part in a potentially record-breaking performance of Shakespeare.
A total of 10,000 pupils from 400 schools will be performing Shakespeare in professional theatres on Sunday.
The event - One Night of Shakespeare - is a collaboration between the BBC and Shakespeare Schools Festival.
Organisers hope to enter the Guinness World Records for the most performances of Shakespeare on one night.
Pupils will perform their own interpretations of shortened versions of some of Shakespeare's plays, directed and produced by their teachers.
There is a Bollywood-inspired Romeo and Juliet, a Winter's Tale exploring "chav" culture, and The Taming of the Shrew set in a women's prison.
As part of the project, pupils and teachers took part in professional training workshops with the National Youth Theatre; Scottish Youth Theatre; National Youth Theatre of Wales and the Ulster Association of Youth Drama.
Celebrity cult
Chris Grace, director of the Shakespeare Schools Festival, said the scale of the event was remarkable and historic.
"This project has been fantastic in bringing Shakespeare alive for young performers as well as boosting communication skills and school morale."
Producer of One Night of Shakespeare, Sally Stokes, said: "For some schools, One Night of Shakespeare is the first time they have tackled Shakespeare on stage; for others it's their first time studying drama.
"They have used their own unique interpretations of Shakespeare's stories to explore contemporary issues that concern them - such as racial tolerance, crime and the cult of celebrity."
Romeo and Eve?
Bandobust to follow?
"Pupils will perform their own interpretations of shortened versions of some of Shakespeare's plays, directed and produced by their teachers."
"There is a Bollywood-inspired Romeo and Juliet, a Winter's Tale exploring "chav" culture, and The Taming of the Shrew set in a women's prison."
What really burns me with so much in the arts lately is when nitwits think they are qualified to 'improve' upon authors or artists who are far beyond them. Who dares to say that teenagers mutilating Shakespeare is some kind of improvement???? They should be learning to try to attain fidelity to the original before they even think about trying to appropriate it in some 'novel' 'contemporary' and 'relevant' way.
It's actually quite similar to the attitudes that allow lightweight judges and lawyers to constantly believe they are 'improving' upon our Constitution and our traditions.
I didn't see where anybody billed it as an "improvement" on Shakespeare. Just trying to do a different take. Don't see what's illegitimate about that, provided it's done well.
I have spent a lot (too much) of my life around such people - believe me, they believe they are improving upon Shakespeare, that the Bard is too stuffy, distant, and remote for our age and that only educrats and artistes who understand what's 'relevant' to kids can be trusted to 'interpret' his works for the present generation.
One can always debate what's a good 'interpretation' and what's mutilation, but we should far sooner trust the works that have come down to us from Shakespeare than the kind of lightweight pretenders who think they know better how to write a play.
It's just students doing once and done demonstrations. Anything that facilitates interest in Shakespeare is a good thing. It's too bad American public schools don't try to do something like this.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.