http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/entertainment2/56644595-223/shakespeare-utah-english-bahr.html.csp
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) John Morris of
Las Vegas, Nanette Kearl of Salt Lake City and Elizabeth Dixon of Lafayette,
Ind., do some play acting, during a theater methods class for secondary
teachers, at Southern Utah University, Friday, July 19, 2013.
Decoding Shakespeare: Utah festival teaches the
teachers
Lessons » Kinetic games help students overcome
aversion to unfamiliar language.
By Lindsay Whitehurst
| The Salt Lake Tribune
First Published Aug 15 2013 05:10 pm • Last Updated Aug
18 2013 05:39 pm
Cedar City • Teaching Shakespeare to middle- and
high-school kids isn’t like introducing Romeo to Juliet and watching the sparks
fly.
"They look at you like, ‘Ooo-kay,’ " said Nanette
Kearl, dance director at Clayton Middle School in Salt Lake City.
Photos
View photo gallery (14 photos)
"I have theater kids, and there are still roadblocks,"
said Holly Morris, a teacher at the Las Vegas Academy for the Arts.
So they came to Michael Bahr, Shakespeare teacher to
the teachers. And Bahr, the education director at the Utah Shakespeare Festival,
knows the complaints:
"We can’t understand him." "Why does he talk that way?"
"Why doesn’t he speak in normal English?"
But despite all the "thous" and "forsooths," the Bard
actually helped create normal English.
Anyone who’s had "too much of a good thing," told a
friend "the long and the short of it" or worried something would disappear "into
thin air" is, perhaps unknowingly, quoting him.
Tracing our linguistic roots isn’t the only reason to
keep Shakespeare in the schools, Bahr said.
"I don’t think Shakespeare has all the answers, but he
certainly asks all the questions. Every question asked by man is in his plays,"
he said. "We are better human beings when we understand ourselves through his
works, and the key to do that is here in the public schools."
To help make his plays relevant for modern kids, the
Utah Shakespeare Festival offers teacher-training workshops designed to help
educators bring the Bard to the masses.
Published Aug 29, 2013 08:13:03PM
So how do you understand one of the greatest writers of
the English language? Ditch English altogether.
On a recent day, Bahr put the group of about 10
secondary teachers into pairs and told them to describe what they had for lunch
— in gibberish. Rather than words, they used noises, gestures and inflection to
communicate their meaning.
He also asked the classroom leaders to lurch around the
room like monsters, toss each other a sort of imaginary baton with a "schwing!"
noise and mime to help a friend explain why they were late to work.
It’s all designed to help teachers break out of the
typical classroom mold and into something more kinetic.
"It’s when we learn to have fun, when we learn to play
with the text that suddenly it becomes not the works of William Shakespeare, but
the plays of William Shakespeare," Bahr said.
Liz Dixon, an English and publications teacher from
West Lafayette, Ind., said the tactics she learned will help her teach more than
just Shakespeare. After all, he’s far from the only school subject that can be a
tough sell to high-school students.
"I can use [these tools] in my other classes too," she
said. "There are some plays I haven’t brought the same excitement to."
Tim Lineback brings his own enthusiasm for Shakespeare
to his English as a second language, science and English classes at Horizonte,
an alternative high school in Salt Lake City.
"I want them to know the richness of life," he said. "I
don’t want them to just be making a buck and making ends meet."
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) John Morris of
Las Vegas, Nanette Kearl of Salt Lake City and Elizabeth Dixon of Lafayette,
Ind., do some play acting, during a theater methods class for secondary
teachers, at Southern Utah University, Friday, July 19, 2013.
Decoding Shakespeare: Utah festival teaches the
teachers
Lessons » Kinetic games help students overcome
aversion to unfamiliar language.
By Lindsay Whitehurst
| The Salt Lake Tribune
First Published Aug 15 2013 05:10 pm • Last Updated Aug
18 2013 05:39 pm
Cedar City • Teaching Shakespeare to middle- and
high-school kids isn’t like introducing Romeo to Juliet and watching the sparks
fly.
"They look at you like, ‘Ooo-kay,’ " said Nanette
Kearl, dance director at Clayton Middle School in Salt Lake City.
Photos
View photo gallery (14 photos)
"I have theater kids, and there are still roadblocks,"
said Holly Morris, a teacher at the Las Vegas Academy for the Arts.
So they came to Michael Bahr, Shakespeare teacher to
the teachers. And Bahr, the education director at the Utah Shakespeare Festival,
knows the complaints:
"We can’t understand him." "Why does he talk that way?"
"Why doesn’t he speak in normal English?"
But despite all the "thous" and "forsooths," the Bard
actually helped create normal English.
Anyone who’s had "too much of a good thing," told a
friend "the long and the short of it" or worried something would disappear "into
thin air" is, perhaps unknowingly, quoting him.
Tracing our linguistic roots isn’t the only reason to
keep Shakespeare in the schools, Bahr said.
"I don’t think Shakespeare has all the answers, but he
certainly asks all the questions. Every question asked by man is in his plays,"
he said. "We are better human beings when we understand ourselves through his
works, and the key to do that is here in the public schools."
To help make his plays relevant for modern kids, the
Utah Shakespeare Festival offers teacher-training workshops designed to help
educators bring the Bard to the masses.
Published Aug 29, 2013 08:13:03PM
So how do you understand one of the greatest writers of
the English language? Ditch English altogether.
On a recent day, Bahr put the group of about 10
secondary teachers into pairs and told them to describe what they had for lunch
— in gibberish. Rather than words, they used noises, gestures and inflection to
communicate their meaning.
He also asked the classroom leaders to lurch around the
room like monsters, toss each other a sort of imaginary baton with a "schwing!"
noise and mime to help a friend explain why they were late to work.
It’s all designed to help teachers break out of the
typical classroom mold and into something more kinetic.
"It’s when we learn to have fun, when we learn to play
with the text that suddenly it becomes not the works of William Shakespeare, but
the plays of William Shakespeare," Bahr said.
Liz Dixon, an English and publications teacher from
West Lafayette, Ind., said the tactics she learned will help her teach more than
just Shakespeare. After all, he’s far from the only school subject that can be a
tough sell to high-school students.
"I can use [these tools] in my other classes too," she
said. "There are some plays I haven’t brought the same excitement to."
Tim Lineback brings his own enthusiasm for Shakespeare
to his English as a second language, science and English classes at Horizonte,
an alternative high school in Salt Lake City.
"I want them to know the richness of life," he said. "I
don’t want them to just be making a buck and making ends meet."
The annual Clayton musical
Community project » Volunteers produce a junior-high
show with a huge cast, animating the story with a flying system.
http://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=8118205&i
By Roxana Orellana
The Salt Lake Tribune
Published March 5, 2010 6:00 pm
This is an archived article that was
published on sltrib.com in 2010, and information in the article may be outdated.
It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be
reprinted.
In her glittery pink dress and silver crown, Glinda the Good Witch descends
in a floating bubble onto the stage. When Dorothy arrives at Emerald City, she
meets the Wizard, a digital animation projection voiced by a young actor.
In musical-friendly Utah, you might expect a popular community-theater
production of "The Wizard of Oz" to feature characters suspended in a flying
system. But what makes this buzz-creating production so remarkable is that the
cast features 235 seventh- and eighth-graders.
Over the past 11 years, Clayton Middle School's spring plays have become
more of a community project than a school activity. Those in the know refer to
it as the "Clayton Musical," and they also know that tickets will be scarce.
"Everyone thinks we're crazy," said Nanette Kearl, a volunteer who directs
the play. "But our philosophy here is to give an opportunity to as many as
possible, so we do that."
It takes nearly a year to get the spring musical ready for opening night.
The students work with a directing team, all volunteers, to learn dances, music
and diction. They crowd the halls for hours after school in the months leading
to the opening.
The spring musical started as a teacher-run activity, but it became too much
work. That's when parents and other community members -- with or without
children at the school -- took over the project. And this year, the musical will
be performed in a new auditorium at a brand-new building.
"I've done the play more without having a kid here than when having a kid
[at Clayton]," Kearl said. "That's just because I love it."
Parents and other volunteers invest thousands of hours and donations on
costumes, scenery, props or feeding students during rehearsals.
Parent Kate Birch, an artist, spent hours drawing and painting the Emerald
City set. Her daughter Morgan, an eighth-grader, landed one of the lead roles as
Dorothy. "Our kids are really lucky to have people who will sacrifice their time
so they can have a once-in-a-lifetime experience like this," Birch said.
"Wizard of Oz" features the largest cast of any show the school has done.
Actors were double-cast and play other roles during their off nights. A total of
280 costumes, from flying monkeys to Winkies, Jitterbugs and Munchkins, were
made or borrowed from other schools.
The show's entire budget comes from donations and grants, the majority from
parents, although organizers are also seeking donations through the Salt Lake
City School District's Education Foundation Web site. The play's program thanks
a cast of volunteers nearly as large as its cast of onstage performers.
No one has to tell Clayton Principal Linda Richins just how rare it is to
have such a supportive community. "It's truly better than any high-school play
I've ever seen," Richins said. "I've been in education for 27 years and I've
never seen anything like this in any school."
The show, which opened Thursday, will run through today, and if there's
enough demand, another show might be added.
"I'm glad everyone gets a ticket and gets to watch it, but I almost feel
sorry for the audience because they don't get to see all the miracles that
happen in the process," said the director. "The best part is seeing where they
start and where they end up. That's absolutely the best part of the Clayton
Musical -- to see the growth. It's the greatest paycheck."
Community project » Volunteers produce a junior-high
show with a huge cast, animating the story with a flying system.
http://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=8118205&i
By Roxana Orellana
The Salt Lake Tribune
Published March 5, 2010 6:00 pm
This is an archived article that was
published on sltrib.com in 2010, and information in the article may be outdated.
It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be
reprinted.
In her glittery pink dress and silver crown, Glinda the Good Witch descends
in a floating bubble onto the stage. When Dorothy arrives at Emerald City, she
meets the Wizard, a digital animation projection voiced by a young actor.
In musical-friendly Utah, you might expect a popular community-theater
production of "The Wizard of Oz" to feature characters suspended in a flying
system. But what makes this buzz-creating production so remarkable is that the
cast features 235 seventh- and eighth-graders.
Over the past 11 years, Clayton Middle School's spring plays have become
more of a community project than a school activity. Those in the know refer to
it as the "Clayton Musical," and they also know that tickets will be scarce.
"Everyone thinks we're crazy," said Nanette Kearl, a volunteer who directs
the play. "But our philosophy here is to give an opportunity to as many as
possible, so we do that."
It takes nearly a year to get the spring musical ready for opening night.
The students work with a directing team, all volunteers, to learn dances, music
and diction. They crowd the halls for hours after school in the months leading
to the opening.
The spring musical started as a teacher-run activity, but it became too much
work. That's when parents and other community members -- with or without
children at the school -- took over the project. And this year, the musical will
be performed in a new auditorium at a brand-new building.
"I've done the play more without having a kid here than when having a kid
[at Clayton]," Kearl said. "That's just because I love it."
Parents and other volunteers invest thousands of hours and donations on
costumes, scenery, props or feeding students during rehearsals.
Parent Kate Birch, an artist, spent hours drawing and painting the Emerald
City set. Her daughter Morgan, an eighth-grader, landed one of the lead roles as
Dorothy. "Our kids are really lucky to have people who will sacrifice their time
so they can have a once-in-a-lifetime experience like this," Birch said.
"Wizard of Oz" features the largest cast of any show the school has done.
Actors were double-cast and play other roles during their off nights. A total of
280 costumes, from flying monkeys to Winkies, Jitterbugs and Munchkins, were
made or borrowed from other schools.
The show's entire budget comes from donations and grants, the majority from
parents, although organizers are also seeking donations through the Salt Lake
City School District's Education Foundation Web site. The play's program thanks
a cast of volunteers nearly as large as its cast of onstage performers.
No one has to tell Clayton Principal Linda Richins just how rare it is to
have such a supportive community. "It's truly better than any high-school play
I've ever seen," Richins said. "I've been in education for 27 years and I've
never seen anything like this in any school."
The show, which opened Thursday, will run through today, and if there's
enough demand, another show might be added.
"I'm glad everyone gets a ticket and gets to watch it, but I almost feel
sorry for the audience because they don't get to see all the miracles that
happen in the process," said the director. "The best part is seeing where they
start and where they end up. That's absolutely the best part of the Clayton
Musical -- to see the growth. It's the greatest paycheck."