DPS students take the stage at Shakespeare Festival

By Mike Pearson, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Linda McConnell / Special To The Rocky

Preparing to tackle "Macbeth" are Carlos Acosta and Laryssa Scott from Archuleta Elementary.

Linda McConnell / Special To The Rocky

Appearing in "Romeo and Juliet" are Anna White (Juliet), left, and Denise Alvidrez (Mrs. Capulet), from Archuleta Elementary.

Linda Mcconnell / Special To The Rocky

Linda McConnell / Special To The Rocky

Gravediggers Nizhooni Hurd, left, and Gisel Almanza from Archuleta Elementary act in a scene from "Hamlet."

At Archuleta Elementary School, in northeast Denver, Juliet is jumping for joy.

No, Romeo hasn't suddenly been resurrected at the end of their namesake tragedy. This Juliet is 9-year-old Anna White, and as she kicks up her heels - arms thrown wide, a smile on her face - she's posing for pictures to represent her school in today's 24th Denver Public Schools Shakespeare Festival.

Sixty Archuleta students, in first through fifth grades, will take part in the showcase of Elizabethan theater. Like Anna, most of the pupils in the rehearsal hall this afternoon beam with pride as they recite lines or strut around in their period costumes.

"They love getting involved with the costuming and acting portion of it," says Rebecca Rael, one of several teachers at the school guiding the students through their thespian paces. "A lot of the kids who are wallflowers and normally don't do anything tend to come out of their shell and find their niche. They get a chance to be somebody else."

A lot of somebodies, to be precise, because Archuleta students will do excerpts from more than a half-dozen Shakespeare plays, including Hamlet, Othello, Much Ado About Nothing, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream and, of course, Romeo and Juliet.

For Rael, who works with third- through fifth-graders, The Bard has proved to be a powerful education tool.

In November, kids are introduced to the plays they'll perform and coaxed in that archaic language. Then they'll often explore the Internet on their own, looking for clues to Shakespeare's life and times.

"They are extending their learning for themselves, not just with Shakespeare but in other areas," Rael says confidently.

And what would Shakespeare make of students' performing his works in an annual public festival?

"I think he would be very surprised, because I don't think he was writing for posterity but for the moment," theorized Joe Craft, the man who has helmed the festival since its inception.

You can hear the pride in Craft's voice when he talks about how the festival has survived lean early days and plenty of critics.

"It was prophesied by some people that no kid would want to learn Shakespeare and we wouldn't last long," he said. "We started with 20 schools and 400 kids. This year we'll have 78 schools and more than 4,000 students."

Craft is particularly proud of the way schools have adapted their approaches to Shakespeare over the years. Some productions even Elizabeth I wouldn't recognize.

"I remember a year or so ago a group did Macbeth in a 1930s, Al Capone-style," said Craft. "That was quite interesting.

"I've seen plays done in French, Spanish, of course, and one that really tugged at my heart: Shoshone."

Double, double toil and trouble . . . 'Macbeth'

* The performers: fourth- and fifth-grade students

* What's so tough: Murder, angst, mysticism. Think Harry Potter 500 years ago, set in a Scottish castle.

* From their perspective: Jazmyn Tinsley, 11, plays a witch: "I think Shakespeare is fun because you get to act out what people did in the early times. It's kind of hard to understand and pronounce some of the words. I think of how a song is and how it rhymes, so I try to make the lines like a song and then I remember them. The best thing is that we get to play ourselves and mix it up with other characters."

A rose by any other name . . . 'Romeo and Juliet'

* The performers: third- through fifth-graders

* What's so tough: Young love is always tough, especially when families disapprove. The excerpt here is a party scene where the youngsters first meet. Don't expect too much angst.

* From their perspective: "Pretty much all my life I've wanted to be an actress," says third-grader Anna White, 9, cast as Juliet. "I don't think I have anything in common with Juliet, except we're both strong- willed. The guy playing Romeo is not my boyfriend. He's way too old for me. I think he's in fourth grade."

24th DPS Shakespeare Festival

* When and where: 10:45 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. today, Denver Performing Arts Complex, 14th and Curtis streets

* Information: shakespeare.dpsk12.org

To be, or not to be . . . 'Hamlet'

* The performers: fourth- and fifth-graders, along with first- and second-grade gifted and talented students in nonspeaking roles

* What's so tough: They don't call him "the melancholy Dane" for nothing. The scene chosen is set in a graveyard, with Hamlet musing at the skull of poor Yorrick. The king and queen arrive to bury Ophelia.

* From their perspective: Alexander Orzescu, 11, fifth grade, plays Hamlet. "It can be difficult to memorize the lines, but the more you do it you get used to it. . . . I took part in last year's festival. It was thrilling because you see a whole huge crowd of people gather around you watching. I'll be less nervous this year."