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Forsooth, I know not why I am so sad

The (in)famous first line from Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, and one of my personal favorite lines in his entire cannon. Coincidentally, it was also my very first experience with Shakespeare about 10 years ago, and I have loved The Bard every since. Over the past few weeks I have been coaching a competitive Shakespeare team with my best friend. If you live in the West, you have probably heard of the Utah Shakespearean Festival, which takes place every summer in Cedar City, UT. It is one of the largest Shakespearean festivals in the country and a few years ago even won a Tony Award for Best Regional Theater. Yeah, it’s awesome. Every fall, in conjunction with the festival, there is a competition for high school students. Each school chooses 3 monologues and 2 short-scenes to compete, as well as a 10-minute Ensemble scene. These young actors compete against dozens of other aspiring thespians for scholarships and points towards their overall score. So, how do I fit into this scenario? Well, again – I happen to have a best friend who teaches theater at a high school in Salt Lake. I also happen to have some kind of miniscule talent at helping kids improive their competition pieces… I don’t act myself, but I am pretty good at telling other people how to make things look or sound better.

At any rate, that’s the back-story. The current-story is this: On Thursday I am boarding a bus with 40 high school kids as a “chaperone”… which means I will be responsible for crazy-excitable kids, away from home/parents/grounding, with other similarly-affected teenagers. Heaven help us all!

Actually, I am really quite excited about the whole thing. I have been working with these kids for weeks at coaching session after coaching session. I have become more familiar with several Shakespeare plays, the ones that have NOT been made into a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio or Mel Gibson.

These kids will be performing scenes from some rather obscure bits of the Shakespeare cannon, including Timon of Athens, Troilus and Cressida, Titus Andronicus, Love’s Labors Lost, The Comedy of Errors, and Coriolanus. Quite the list, yes? Have you heard of more than 2 of these? Probably not. That’s ok, let me summarize: A snubbed Greek Guy, A googly Greek Princess, a psycho sociopath, a twitterpated Spanish Don and his servant, and a couple of women giving their overly articulate servant a verbal lashing…. and then there’s Coriolanus – Roman soldier banished from his own city. Sounds like an exciting weekend? Yes? Ok – I realize that to some of you spending 3 days with 40-high school kids sounds like inhumane torture akin to the 100-years war or Chinese water treatment (drip… drip… drip). However, seeing the change and “A Ha!” moments in these kids of the past few weeks has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life – and I am really looking forward to watching them compete and (hopefully!! everyone cross your fingers and say a little prayer to The Bard) win the entire thing. I know they will do their best, and that will be good enough for me; All’s Well That Ends Well.

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