On Wednesday, May. 6, students arrived at school at 6:30 in the morning, around an hour and a half before school would usually start, to board a bus for the three-and-a-half-hour trip to Stratford: a city all the way out of the country in Canada. There, they would spend the day with their Shakespeare English class taught by Robert Lavelanet. They participated in workshops with Shakespearean actors and saw a live production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which they had learned about in class.
For Community High School teacher Robert Lavelanet this marks his fourth year taking students to Stratfordhas been taking his students to Stratford for four years. For Lavelanet, it’s important to give his students the experience of live theater and for them to see Shakespeare’s work as it was intended to be written and performed on stage.
“We read Shakespeare, and we see some cinematic productions, but Shakespeare really is intended to be seen as live theater,” Lavelanet said. “And I think that it actually was a great thing about seeing A Midsummer Night’s Dream, that it’s very much a fourth wall-breaking show.”
After arriving in Stratford, students went to a workshop where they learned how Shakespearean language works. Actors taught them how to understand stage cues and gave them a deeper understanding of live theatre.
Freshman Layla Clark and Blix Finn went on the trip together, and the two of them, along with the rest of their class, participated in the workshop. They both left with many amazing takeaways from the experience.
“It was really helpful learning some techniques, acting is definitely different than just reading it,” Clark says. “I got a better perspective on what they do and how they prepare for the play.”
For freshman Blix Finn, the trip was not only a fun escape from the school day, but it also gave her more knowledge that will help her not just in her Shakespeare class, but in life as well.
“[The workshops] gave me both a better understanding of the play and getting comfortable acting and just kind of having fun with it,” Finn said. “Like diving into that Shakespearean experience.”
Not only does the trip allow the class to see a Shakespeare play as it was intended to be seen, but it also helps the students from an academic perspective. This can then help them to get a more accurate version of how it was meant to be seen and learned.
“I think that the trip was good for the class, because we’ve been studying these Shakespeare books all semester and seeing films of it,” Finn says. “But I liked seeing how Shakespeare intended it to be written, as a play.”
The trip altogether allowed all of the students to connect and have fun together outside of school, while still being able to learn about Shakespeare. Throughout the day, the students explored Stratford, went to lunch together, and played games on the bus ride. Freshman Liliana Drake, Daniel Shanafelt, and Layla Clark reflect onmember going to lunch together, running around Stratford, and bonding as classmates and friends.
“I think it was a really good bonding experience,” Clark said. “I made new friends, people I’ve been around, but I just never got a chance to talk to them. I think that it was a really good and helpful trip. ”
