What's Happening in Cougar Country

For the second consecutive semester, Ms. Tabitha Halcomb’s English classes were engaged in a week-long Shakespearean experience.

Two actors, as part of the Great Lakes Theater Company’s School Residency Program, were in school last week to work with students on Julius Caesar with the sophomore classes, Macbeth with the senior classes and A Midsummer Night's Dream with the senior honors class.

Teaching the classes were Tim Keo, who has been with the company since 2004, and Noelle Elise Crites, who is only in her second year with the residency program.

The full-participation classes brought Shakespeare to life in the Media Center, where the classes not only discussed the text and language, but also the movements and interaction of the characters. 

Each day involved three components: acting, discussion, theater exercises. Earlier in the week the actors performed for the students, followed by actors and students rehearsing and performing side-by-side with each other, finishing the week off with students doing the acting while the actor-teachers serve as the directors. By the end of the week, the students reading Julius Caesar and Macbeth were acting out full-on fight scenes.

“This is a great chance for the students to get out of the classroom and bring Shakespeare to life,” Halcomb said. “It’s much easier to learn and understand a play, especially Shakespeare, when you can act it out and see what’s going on.”