Shakespeare & Co.'s Annual Fall Festival Concludes This Weekend
Mount Everett students in 'Twelfth Night' in 2024. A 'Fill the Quill' matching fundraiser is running through the Fall Festival weekend to support Shakespeare in the schools.
Although hundreds of years old, Shakespeare's rhetoric, wit, and the universality of his work and themes, are still relevant to experiences people have today, said John Leggett, the company's co-director for Mount Everett Regional School.
"So, part of our job is not to explain to them what the play is, but help guide them in the right direction to be able to find out what the play means to them," he said.
The festival brings together students from multiple schools across Berkshire County and eastern New York State for a nine-week, non-competitive exploration of Shakespeare's plays.
"What we want to do is have them put their work on stage. It's the model of cooperation, the model of collaboration, the model of thinking creatively, is every bit as valid as the competitive model, where you're working against each other and trying to beat them. This is a way to celebrate each other," said Director of Education Kevin Coleman.
"If we don't learn how to collaborate with each other, cooperate with each other, and to think creatively, we're doomed. We're just doomed as a species, in the world, as the human race."
The event fostering friendships, collaborations, and a strong sense of belonging that extends beyond individual schools, speakers said
"I think doing Shakespeare teaches kids about huge themes, and they learn how to have huge emotions and it's a humanist point of view," said Madeleine Maggio, the company's co-director for Mount Everett.
Having so many generations who have participated in the festival, the hope is they leave and bring those humanist ideas wherever they go, she said.
A big part of the festival spans beyond the schools, entering into the local community through partnerships with local businesses, said Megan Marchione, education programs manager.
Over the years, Shakespeare & Company has impacted generations who have gone on to support the organization or have their own children participate in the event, she said.
This year, Mike Miller, who has served on the board for more than 30 years, is having a "Fill the Quill" match grant challenge thanks to funding from board member David Sorkin and his wife, Amy.
The Sorkins have pledged to match every dollar contributed to the company's Education Program before the close of Fall Festival Weekend, Nov. 20 to 23, up to $50,000.
At the time of the interview, Shakespeare & Company has raised a little over $25,000.
"That type of funding is vital to the program, and it goes directly back into the Fall Festival," Marchione said.
This is Leggett's first time directing in the festival. He expressed how the experience has transformed his perspective on education and creative collaboration.
Exposing students to the company's professional model before going to university is important because, based on Leggett's personal experience, it gives the teenagers the license to experience the huge emotions portrayed in Shakespeare's plays on a grandiose scale, he said.
"I can't help but imagine how different my life would have been, even my collegiate experience would have been if I had something like this during my teenage years," Leggett said.
The professional model involves the director telling the actors what the play is about and starting to block the director's ideas on the first day of rehearsal, Coleman said, and it's a model being replicated across the world.
"This way, the students get to step into this world of theater that they've maybe never joined before and they're discovering ownership for these characters, and they're discovering the story they want to tell," he said. "We can challenge their notions and have them think more deeply. But then what we want to do is have them put their work on stage."
Multiple schools may do the same play, however, since each student is bringing a unique piece of themselves into the play, each performance is wildly different, Marchione said.
"The shows are produced by different companies, different kids, different directors, different designers, so they're wildly different, and they all bring themselves to it, which makes it so exciting," she said.
"You're never going to see the same play played twice throughout the festival. It's really incredible. And they bring the text alive."
The current political climate leans toward eliminating the arts, Coleman said.
"We want as many kids as possible to have an experience of what theater is and what it might be, and what this art form could be in their life," he said, and by making the grant a challenge, they hope it encourages other people and organizations to donate in the future."
Community Television for the Southern Berkshires is live-streaming each of the 10 shows. Each school will hold its own performances on select weekends, culminating on Shakespeare & Company's main stage at the Tina Packer Playhouse on Nov. 20 through 23.
Tina Packer Playhouse Performance Schedule:
Thursday, Nov. 20: Chatham (N.Y.) High School, "Julius Caesar" at 6:15 p.m.; Monument Mountain Regional High School, "Twelfth Night" at 8:30 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 21: Lee High School, "Much Ado About Nothing" at 6:15; Pittsfield High School, "Hamlet" at 8:30 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 22: Lenox Memorial High School, "Romeo and Juliet" at 1:15 p.m.; Berkshire Waldorf High School, "Hamlet" at 3:30 p.m.; Mount Greylock Regional School, "Twelfth Night" at 6:15 p.m.; Springfield Central High School, "Romeo and Juliet at 8:30 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 23: Taconic Hills Central School, Craryville, N.Y., "Macbeth" at 1:15 p.m.; Mount Everett Regional School, "Richard III" at 3:30 p.m.; closing reverence at 5.
Tickets or passes here.
Tags: high school production, Shakespeare & Company,
