Ask Mary Hartman what it’s like introducing Shakespeare to children, and her enthusiasm will bubble across the phone line.
“It’s one of my favourite things in the world!” she says.
Which is probably a good thing, since introducing Shakespeare to children makes up a large part of Hartman’s job. The Burnaby resident is the director of education for Bard on the Beach, and in that role she offers a series of Young Shakespeareans summer workshop for children and teens, aged eight to 18.
Hartman is full of enthusiasm for this year’s offerings, which include 16 different workshops. Most of the sessions are two weeks long for half-days, and each workshop introduces the young participants to one particular work. And no, the program doesn’t stick to just the Bard’s lighter comedic works.
“We do all different kinds of Shakespeare plays,” Hartman says, noting this year’s options include Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar and Richard III – alongside, of course, the always popular Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Because the camp has a high rate of return - “we have a lot of participants who come when they’re eight years old and they come for ten years,” Hartman says – she notes they always change up the offerings so that kids have a new experience each year.
Participants study and work on the play for those two weeks, then stage an abridged version for family and friends at the end of the camp. Hartman and her team cut the works for length – about an hour for the 13-to-18 crowd, and about 50 minutes for the eight-to-13 set – but they don’t alter the language.
‘We don’t change Shakespeare’s language at all. We believe young people can speak the language and understand the language,” Hartman says. (For the record, she also says it’s easier to memorize Shakespeare than it is to memorize anything else – probably, she speculates, because of the meter and rhythm of the language.)
Hartman is passionate about her devotion to Shakespeare’s language, and she’s quick to discount any notion that Shakespearean plays are written in “old” English.
“Shakespeare was writing when the English language was 400 years younger,” she points out.
As a consequence, she says, the language was younger, more vibrant, more daring, more outrageous - rather like kids themselves.
“The young people we work with LOVE Shakespeare,” she says.
What she will do, though, is change the focus of a play depending on the age group she’s working with – for instance, she’ll de-emphasize the Hamlet-Ophelia romance in the kid version of the play, because that simply doesn’t resonate with the younger set yet.
But, she says, it’s not necessary to shy away from the grand themes and messages of Shakespeare.
She quotes German playwright Bertolt Brecht in saying that: “For children, only the highest themes are high enough.”
She cites, as an example, last year’s workshop of Romeo and Juliet for kids. The workshop included 13 girls and one boy. The boy was keen to play Tybalt; the girls all had to figure out how to divvy up the parts between them.
The group explored the text based on the idea that the theme is “what happens when a society chooses hate over love,” and from there the kids decided who wanted to take what roles.
In the end, six of the girls wanted to play Romeo and/or Juliet. So all six played both parts, appearing as Romeo or Juliet in at least one scene apiece, with a simple coloured sash to denote character. In three pivotal scenes – when the two young lovers first meet at the ball, when they get married, and at the climactic final moments in the tomb – three pairs of Romeos and Juliets appeared together.
“These young people just took that to heart. They owned it and did such a beautiful job,” Hartman recalls. “The participants just loved it.”
The workshops are open to children of all skill and experience levels; Hartman says kids don’t need to have a background in acting or in Shakespeare and, in fact, many participants come in as complete newbies. The programs don’t include any auditions, and they’re not focused on assigning “big roles” or “small roles” – but rather, on deciding as a group how the story can best be told.
“We’re really interested in finding the most exciting and most meaningful way to tell the story as a group,” she says.
Gender can easily be fluid in Shakespeare, she points out – noting that kings and queens, if you think of them just as “monarchs,” can be played by anyone, and likewise with lovers.
That’s one of the many reasons she’s drawn to Shakespeare, she says; unlike much contemporary theatre, it’s not grounded in a particular context of time and place.
“Shakespeare thrives in an infinite number of contexts,” she says, noting that factors such as age, cultural background and geographic location can all be reinterpreted. “It’s just infinitely flexible.”
That means that no matter a child’s background – or an adult’s – Shakespeare can speak to an infinite number of perspectives.
“The greater variety of people we get to do Shakespeare, the more we learn,” Hartman says. “Shakespeare belongs to all of us.”
WORKSHOP FAST FACTS
Young Shakespearean workshops take place at the Bard on the Beach site in Vancouver’s Vanier Park, with sessions beginning July 3 and running through to Aug. 31.
Costs range from $370 to $490 for two-week half-day programs and one-week full-day programs, and $800 for two-week full-day programs. Bursaries are available for anyone wishing to take part for whom finances are an obstacle.
New this year are full-day options, in which participants can spend the mornings learning and rehearsing, then stay for the afternoons to go behind the scenes and learn more about the broader workings of theatre production – including explorations of prop and wardrobes, tours of technical facilities and special visits and activities with Bard on the Beach staff. Early drop-off and late pick-up hours are available for an extra fee.
To register or for information, see www.bardonthebeach.org under Bard Education.
WHAT'S UP THIS SUMMER? CAMP DETAILS
For kids (ages 8 to 13):
Hamlet: July 3 to 13, 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Romeo and Juliet: July 17 to 27, 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.; full-day option 2 to 5 p.m. daily
Comedy of Errors: July 30 to Aug. 10, 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Julius Caesar: July 30 to Aug. 10, 2 to 5 p.m.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Aug. 20 to 31, 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.; full-day option 2 to 5 p.m. daily
Shakespeare Shakeup – One-Week Intensive
Participants will explore excerpts from lesser-known plays and create a presentation of speeches and scenes.
Ages 11 to 14: Aug. 13 to 17, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily
Ages 15 to 18: Aug. 13 to 17, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily
For teens (13 to 18)
Romeo and Juliet: July 3 to 13, 1 to 5 p.m.
Much Ado About Nothing: July 16 to 27, 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
The Winter’s Tale: July 16 to 27, 1 to 5 p.m.
Richard III: July 30 to Aug. 10, 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
The Tempest: July 30 to Aug. 10, 1 to 5 p.m.
Julius Caesar: Aug. 20 to 31, 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Comedy of Errors: Aug. 20 to 31, 1 to 5 p.m.
