Miss-Delectable
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2004
- Messages
- 17,160
- Reaction score
- 7
http://www2.townonline.com/allston/artsLifestyle/view.bg?articleid=551170
Seven groups of Boston-area kids, including students from Allston's Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, will share their interpretations of William Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew" this Sunday.
The performances are part of "Celebrate Shakespeare," a program presented by the Wang Center for Performing Arts. The program includes a series of workshops, events and performances leading up to a large-scale production of "The Taming of the Shrew," with American Sign Language interpreters as well as audio descriptions for the blind.
The Horace Mann School will showcase 11 of their students in a skit using American Sign Language and based on the themes and plot of "Taming of the Shrew."
These students said they decided to take a more serious tone on the Shakespearean comedy, focusing on the violence in the play to show how unhealthy abusive relationships can be. Some of the students wanted to go for a friendlier, more party-oriented approach, but the majority decided that the performance would deal mainly with the themes of love and violence. The story is about a young woman named Chanel whose boyfriend, Jamal, thinks she is cheating on him and becomes increasingly paranoid and violent in the relationship.
The second half of their version of the play has a more positive tone, but may still be unsuitable for very young children, said the students. Famed deaf actor Ty Giordano, who will be acting on "Celebrate Shakespeare Day" in a bilingual (half in English, half in ASL) production of "The Tempest," will be stopping by the Horace Mann School to give the students some tips to help their performances.
Eryn Johnson, acting director of education at the Wang Center, said, "Most people latched on to the banter of 'Shrew,' the moonlighting-aspect. This group was obviously taken by the violence in the play. All the different angles that the different groups of students have taken have been very telling."
Johnson also said that the students have taken the texts and made them alive by connecting them with their own experiences. Johnson also spoke of the teaching assistants the Wang Center hired to help train the students in acting during the four-week program. "This is the first time we have ever done this," said Johnson. "I had to do a lot of research because it's an unusual event. Shakespeare isn't necessarily seen as family-oriented."
Although the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company's production of "Taming of the Shrew" will be presented on the Common for free to Aug. 13, all of the other related events, including the student productions, will be held only on Aug. 6. On that one day, however, there will be a whole list of activities to choose from. From strolling performers to backstage tours to "Shakespeareoky." The Wang Center has gone all-out. "We are taking something that is seen as elevated and bringing it to the everyman, which is really who Shakespeare was meant for anyways" Johnson said.
The Horace Mann School will showcase 11 of their students in a skit using American Sign Language and based on the themes and plot of "Taming of the Shrew."
These students said they decided to take a more serious tone on the Shakespearean comedy, focusing on the violence in the play to show how unhealthy abusive relationships can be. Some of the students wanted to go for a friendlier, more party-oriented approach, but the majority decided that the performance would deal mainly with the themes of love and violence. The story is about a young woman named Chanel whose boyfriend, Jamal, thinks she is cheating on him and becomes increasingly paranoid and violent in the relationship.
The second half of their version of the play has a more positive tone, but may still be unsuitable for very young children, said the students. Famed deaf actor Ty Giordano, who will be acting on "Celebrate Shakespeare Day" in a bilingual (half in English, half in ASL) production of "The Tempest," will be stopping by the Horace Mann School to give the students some tips to help their performances.
Eryn Johnson, acting director of education at the Wang Center, said, "Most people latched on to the banter of 'Shrew,' the moonlighting-aspect. This group was obviously taken by the violence in the play. All the different angles that the different groups of students have taken have been very telling."
Johnson also said that the students have taken the texts and made them alive by connecting them with their own experiences. Johnson also spoke of the teaching assistants the Wang Center hired to help train the students in acting during the four-week program. "This is the first time we have ever done this," said Johnson. "I had to do a lot of research because it's an unusual event. Shakespeare isn't necessarily seen as family-oriented."
Although the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company's production of "Taming of the Shrew" will be presented on the Common for free to Aug. 13, all of the other related events, including the student productions, will be held only on Aug. 6. On that one day, however, there will be a whole list of activities to choose from. From strolling performers to backstage tours to "Shakespeareoky." The Wang Center has gone all-out. "We are taking something that is seen as elevated and bringing it to the everyman, which is really who Shakespeare was meant for anyways" Johnson said. [continue]
Seven groups of Boston-area kids, including students from Allston's Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, will share their interpretations of William Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew" this Sunday.
The performances are part of "Celebrate Shakespeare," a program presented by the Wang Center for Performing Arts. The program includes a series of workshops, events and performances leading up to a large-scale production of "The Taming of the Shrew," with American Sign Language interpreters as well as audio descriptions for the blind.
The Horace Mann School will showcase 11 of their students in a skit using American Sign Language and based on the themes and plot of "Taming of the Shrew."
These students said they decided to take a more serious tone on the Shakespearean comedy, focusing on the violence in the play to show how unhealthy abusive relationships can be. Some of the students wanted to go for a friendlier, more party-oriented approach, but the majority decided that the performance would deal mainly with the themes of love and violence. The story is about a young woman named Chanel whose boyfriend, Jamal, thinks she is cheating on him and becomes increasingly paranoid and violent in the relationship.
The second half of their version of the play has a more positive tone, but may still be unsuitable for very young children, said the students. Famed deaf actor Ty Giordano, who will be acting on "Celebrate Shakespeare Day" in a bilingual (half in English, half in ASL) production of "The Tempest," will be stopping by the Horace Mann School to give the students some tips to help their performances.
Eryn Johnson, acting director of education at the Wang Center, said, "Most people latched on to the banter of 'Shrew,' the moonlighting-aspect. This group was obviously taken by the violence in the play. All the different angles that the different groups of students have taken have been very telling."
Johnson also said that the students have taken the texts and made them alive by connecting them with their own experiences. Johnson also spoke of the teaching assistants the Wang Center hired to help train the students in acting during the four-week program. "This is the first time we have ever done this," said Johnson. "I had to do a lot of research because it's an unusual event. Shakespeare isn't necessarily seen as family-oriented."
Although the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company's production of "Taming of the Shrew" will be presented on the Common for free to Aug. 13, all of the other related events, including the student productions, will be held only on Aug. 6. On that one day, however, there will be a whole list of activities to choose from. From strolling performers to backstage tours to "Shakespeareoky." The Wang Center has gone all-out. "We are taking something that is seen as elevated and bringing it to the everyman, which is really who Shakespeare was meant for anyways" Johnson said.
The Horace Mann School will showcase 11 of their students in a skit using American Sign Language and based on the themes and plot of "Taming of the Shrew."
These students said they decided to take a more serious tone on the Shakespearean comedy, focusing on the violence in the play to show how unhealthy abusive relationships can be. Some of the students wanted to go for a friendlier, more party-oriented approach, but the majority decided that the performance would deal mainly with the themes of love and violence. The story is about a young woman named Chanel whose boyfriend, Jamal, thinks she is cheating on him and becomes increasingly paranoid and violent in the relationship.
The second half of their version of the play has a more positive tone, but may still be unsuitable for very young children, said the students. Famed deaf actor Ty Giordano, who will be acting on "Celebrate Shakespeare Day" in a bilingual (half in English, half in ASL) production of "The Tempest," will be stopping by the Horace Mann School to give the students some tips to help their performances.
Eryn Johnson, acting director of education at the Wang Center, said, "Most people latched on to the banter of 'Shrew,' the moonlighting-aspect. This group was obviously taken by the violence in the play. All the different angles that the different groups of students have taken have been very telling."
Johnson also said that the students have taken the texts and made them alive by connecting them with their own experiences. Johnson also spoke of the teaching assistants the Wang Center hired to help train the students in acting during the four-week program. "This is the first time we have ever done this," said Johnson. "I had to do a lot of research because it's an unusual event. Shakespeare isn't necessarily seen as family-oriented."
Although the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company's production of "Taming of the Shrew" will be presented on the Common for free to Aug. 13, all of the other related events, including the student productions, will be held only on Aug. 6. On that one day, however, there will be a whole list of activities to choose from. From strolling performers to backstage tours to "Shakespeareoky." The Wang Center has gone all-out. "We are taking something that is seen as elevated and bringing it to the everyman, which is really who Shakespeare was meant for anyways" Johnson said. [continue]