Students Get on 'Bard' with Shakespeare
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The entire University community is invited to attend Shakesperience: NJ, where more than 200 high-school, middle-school and home-schooled students from across the state will relive the world of Shakespeare.
The two-day festival began on Wednesday, May 20, and will continue on Thursday, May 21, in The Yvonne Theater on Rider’s Lawrenceville campus, from 9 a.m. to about 2:30 p.m. During the festival, students perform scenes and montages from various Shakespeare plays.
“The idea is to promote youth performances of Shakespeare, so they understand meaning within the text — Shakespeare plays and works in general,” said Dr. Kathleen Pierce, chair of Graduate Education at Rider and coordinator of Shakesperience: NJ. “We learn by doing. Performing Shakespeare is a way to connect students to enduring concepts that challenge and delight people throughout the ages.”
Participating student groups on Wednesday included Willfully Yours, South Jersey Shakespearean Players; Kinnelon High School; Cumberland Regional High School Players; and Faith Hope Love Academy.
Participating student groups on Thursday will include South Brunswick High School; Teen Shakespeare: Romeo & Juliet; The Creative Arts High School Twenty-Twelve Players; Woodglen Middle School Wildcat Players; The Clearview Regional High School Shakespeareans; Long Branch High School; and The Robbinsville High School Raven Players.
A number of Rider faculty, staff and alumni are also participating. Miriam Mills, assistant professor of Fine Arts, and Lynne Cullinane, adjunct faculty in Education, will serve as the commentators. Tharyle Prather, director of the theater facility, will serve as theater manager, and Lisa Roth, adjunct faculty in the Teacher Education department, will serve as the stage manager.
John Dalesandro ’04, who received a degree in English Education, will work as a docent during the festival, guiding student groups throughout their day at Rider and their performance on stage. Dalesandro is an English/Language Arts teacher at Manalapan Middle School.
Meanwhile, educators, who completed Rider’s Graduate-Level Teacher Certification Program, are also participating: Lillian Halden, who teaches at Rosa International Middle School, is the adviser for Willfully Yours; and Mary Jo Begosh is an English/Language Arts teacher at Woodglen Middle School in Cafilon, N.J.
Shakesperience: NJ is a partnership between The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey and Rider University with the support of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.
