News & Events

Brush Up Your Shakespeare

 

Leave it to Cole Porter to coin a lyric that would connect everyone who ever attended a high school English class; “brush up your Shakespeare.”  Being introduced to Shakespeare in high school is one of the threads most of us have in common.  And now, the IPFW Department of Theatre wants to enhance that experience for hundreds of high school students throughout northeast Indiana.

Starting in February, four IPFW theatre majors will be touring high schools presenting a wild romp through the land of Shakespeare entitled Brush Up Your Shakespeare.  The 50–minute presentation is perfect for approximately 120 high school students and the troupe will perform on stages, in cafetoriums and in the library. According to John O'Connell, Chair of the Department of theatre and director of Brush Up Your Shakespeare the department has 17 different tour dates scheduled.

Written by Tina Fitch, Brush Up Your Shakespeare, filled with scenes from Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, and Macbeth, interspersed with historical dialogue, reminds the audience that Shakespeare was a regular guy, who wrote for the masses.  In the 1600’s not even bear-baiting and public executions were more popular than Shakespeare.  For only a penny, the average Elizabethan Joe could pay to stand in the Globe Theatre and enjoy all of the blood, gore, bawdiness and history The Bard could dish out.

In Brush Up Your Shakespeare, O’Connell uses rap segments and physical comedy to get his love of Shakespeare across.  Often times using volunteers from the audience, the actors present scenes filled with contemporary, trendy idioms that the high school students relate to, because the theatre majors bring those choices to the rehearsal process.

“It’s all very approachable and funny for the students, almost like a Shakespeare Unplugged, presented by actors that high school students can relate to,” said O’Connell. “There is no better way to dig into Shakespeare than to have it read to you or to read it aloud with others.  One of my goals is to get local high school students excited about theatre again.”

IPFW is an Equal Opportunity/Equal Access University.