All the World's A Stage!
“All the world’s a stage” and that definitely includes Delmar-Harvard. On March 3, on the “stage” of the floor of the large gym, Shakespeare Festival St. Louis entertained the entire Delmar-Harvard community. Students watched the production of “All the World’s a Stage,” which featured excerpts from five of William Shakespeare’s plays (“Romeo and Juliet”,”The Taming of the Shrew,” ”The Tempest,” ”Macbeth,” and ”The Twelfth Night.”) All the parts in these five plays were played by just four actors and a fifth actor who played the part of William Shakespeare, or Will (don’t call him Bill, he told us.) Between these selections, the players performed mini-plays about Will and about acting and the theater during Will’s time.
Even though Shakespeare’s words sound strange to our ears (they spoke differently 400 years ago!), the actors used their voices and their actions to help make the meaning of the words clear.
The student audience was enthusiastic and asked the actors many questions in the period after the play. Second grader Karl Nelson told the players that Delmar-Harvard students were practicing for their own production of Shakespeare. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” will be performed by two groups of students on May 17 and 19. The Delmar-Harvard Theatrical Company is organized by Ms. Christi Sorrel, GATE teacher.
Shakespeare Festival St. Louis will be performing “Hamlet” May 26-June 20 (nightly, except for Tuesdays) in Forest Park for free. The actors we saw here at Delmar-Harvard will appear in the Green Show (artists from the community that entertain and engage audiences of all ages) before the performance of “Hamlet” begins. www.shakespearefestivalstlouis.org
