Hi, My name is Peter Lipinsky, and in this episode, we’ll be talking with students from ninth and 10th grade about acting out Shakespeare in their English classes, and also about what they think about it.

Lipinsky: Can you introduce yourself, please?

Barlow: Of course, Ella Barlow, grade 10.

Lipinsky: What are your pronouns?

Barlow: She/her

Lipinsky: And how do you feel about performing and acting out? Shakespeare plays in ninth and 10th grade.

Barlow: I actually, I absolutely love it. I’m an actor myself, [in] the musicals and plays, so I think it’s very fun to play a character from an old Shakespearean play.

Lipinsky: And additionally, with acting out and learning the lines, I know, at least for the 10th grade, we were able to choose what lines we wanted to keep and what themes we wanted to address. So which ones did you address in yours?

Barlow: We kind of addressed we so we had the scene of like when Ophelia goes mad in Hamlet, and we decided we kind of wanted to focus on the weirdness of it all, kind of like Ophelia is sort of, you know, madness as well as the king and queen’s reactions towards Ophelia.

Lipinsky: Who was in your group by the way?

Barlow: I had Nabeeha, Ryan and Chloe.

Lipinsky: And what characters were you all?

Barlow: I was Ophelia, Chloe was the queen. Ryan was the king, and then Nabeeha was Laertes, so it’s very fun playing Ophelia. I got to experience being disheveled and crazy.

Lipinsky: Was there any line choice or costume design that you like, remember, or are really proud of

Barlow: Yeah, for line choice, I enjoyed all of the strange songs Ophelia sang, which I actually put in a little bit of a Shakespearean translator, which I found online. And, wow, all of them are really sad.

Lipinsky: And when you were, were you actually singing those songs? Or were you just rhyming?

Barlow: I was singing them. I tried to be kind of as creepy crazy as possible.

Lipinsky: Was there like, any like appearance you were going for when you were seeing them? Like, were you like, were you doing anything like with how you were carrying yourself to match
that tone?

Barlow: Um, I was sort of swaying back and forth, kind of, uh, kind of looking around weirdly, kind of acting like, not like I didn’t really have a care in the world, kind of not being aware of my surroundings.

Lipinsky: And what do you think you got from the experience?

Barlow: I sort of got, like, just a fun experience of acting in English class. I know last year, during Verona Fest, I also got a fun experience from that. So it was just really fun to do.

Lipinsky: And do you think you have any idea why English teachers are having us act out these plays?

Barlow: I personally think it’s to like for us to get, like, more of a better experience of Shakespeare, since that’s something like we do in ninth grade and 10th grade, instead of like, just just reading it.

Lipinsky: In addition to the 10th graders performing scenes from Hamlet, ninth graders also acted out scenes from Romeo and Juliet.

Lipinsky: Can you introduce yourself and list out your pronouns?

Kidder: I’m August. I’m in ninth grade. My pronouns are he/him.

Lipinsky: Who was in your group. And what scene did you act out of Shakespeare?

Kidder: I had Theo Salonek, Alex Meyer, Eric Zhang and Kent Le in my group, and we acted out…

Lipinsky: if you don’t remember the scene, just like what it was about.

Kidder: The scene about Romeo breaking into a Capulet party.

Lipinsky: And who were you in that scene

Kidder: I was Capulet,

Lipinsky: and what do you think you— what was your favorite moment from the like rehearsing and then the final,

Kidder: I think my favorite moment was adapting the play to what we ended up taking.

Lipinsky: What was your adaptation?

Kidder: Our adaptation was having it at a French Cafe.

Lipinsky: And how did that change the overall theme? Or, like, how to achieve the theme you’re going for?

Kidder: Mainly it just changed the setting and the character names. But yeah, that was basically it.

Lipinsky: and was there something that you distinctly remember the moment

Kidder: I forgot a huge chunk of my lines, so that was pretty memorable.

Lipinsky: And what do you think of the experience of Shakespeare? Do you think you got anything [out of it]?

Kidder: Honestly, No.

Lipinsky: Okay, was that at least fun?

Kidder: Yeah, it was fun.

Lipinsky: Why do you think teachers are having neither tech groups act out Shakespeare scenes?

Kidder: I think it’s to help us gain a deeper understanding of poetry and the plays,

Lipinsky: The English performances were an opportunity for students to step into the world of theater and production, and whether willingly or unwillingly gain a deeper understanding of the nuances of Shakespeare.

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