Grant brings ‘Romeo and Juliet’ productions to students

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The Cincinnati Shakespeare Company performs “Romeo and Juliet” Wednesday, March 18, at Hamilton Freshman School. Hamilton Freshman School was awarded a $1,000 grant from Learning Links to bring two theater presentations of the play to the students.

Staff photo by Samantha Grier The Cincinnati Shakespeare Company performs “Romeo and Juliet” Wednesday, March 18, at Hamilton Freshman School. Hamilton Freshman School was awarded a $1,000 grant from Learning Links to bring two theater presentations of the play to the students.

The Cincinnati Shakespeare Company performed a live, two-hour adaptation for students.

By Richard O Jones, Staff Writer Updated 8:26 AM Friday, March 19, 2010

HAMILTON — William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” may be 400 years old, but students at the Hamilton Freshman School have found out the story of the star-crossed lovers is still full of life and humor.

The play is part of the ninth-grade curriculum, according to English teacher Alicia Gabbard, and part of their required reading, but sometimes it’s difficult to generate interest in what seems to be an archaic text.

“When we start with Shakespeare, they don’t understand a thing,” she said. “They’re even turned off by the names of the characters.

“But because Shakespeare is meant to be performed, one of our strategies is to read it aloud in class,” Gabbard said.

And in previous years, they would supplement the reading by screening one of the film or video adaptations.

But this year, thanks to a $1,000 grant from a Learning Links grant from the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, the school was able to bring in the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company to present a live, two-hour adaptation.

The performance used seven actors in doubled and tripled roles, and used Shakespeare’s actual text edited length and tweaking some of the non-essential character parts. The cast also came out after a curtain call to answer questions from the audience.

“The kids love it,” Gabbard said. “Many of them have never been to a play before.”

Even though the company came for two performances during the past two weeks so that the whole school would be able to see the show, some — Logan Fox, for instance — managed to get into both performances.

“It helps you get into it more,” Fox said. “To have it performed by professionals really helps you understand it more.”

Student Calixto Rubio is one of those who had never been to a live theatrical performance before, but said that it reminded him of the melodramatic “novelas” that are a staple of Hispanic television.

“They do a lot of shows like ‘Romeo and Juliet’,” he said.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.

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