"Action is eloquence."
by Sarah Heath
photos by Jacquelyn Hudson-Raila
Every year Denver Public Schools hosts a Shakespeare Festival in the spring. This year TJ teachers Jacquelyn Hudson-Raila and Carole Fulkerson took a Freshman Lit X class as a companion to their SpringBoard studies and the dance, choir and strings classes to the festivities. Guess what? They dominated.
Each year there’s a big opening ceremony wherein Queen Elizabeth and William Shakespeare give speeches. Then they board the carriage and there is a big parade leading to the DCPA pavilion where there are many stages. All of them, like The Rose, have the names of the stages where Shakespeare’s plays were originally performed. The festival attracts all kinds of acts, it’s not just groups with stage time. Street performers of all ages roam around, and everywhere people are speaking in Olde English. The entire experience is bundles of fun and almost the only introduction kids in middle and high school get to real-life performances of Shakespeare. The festival can be challenging because Shakespeare wrote a long, long time ago, but all those who participate can take home a large measure of satisfaction.
TJ shone with several on and off stage performances, ranging from on-stage sonnets and scenes to behind the scenes work with the technical aspects of the Festival. One student starred as an attendant on the “Royal Carriage.”
TJ teacher, Jaquelyn Hudson-Raila, who received her Masters Degree in Theatre from Roosevelt University in Chicago, brings art education back into the classroom in her freshman, X-English class. (The DPS Shakespeare Festival is optional to all DPS schools and students. Since the school buses were unavailable to schools that didn’t receive a certain amount of stage time, the festival has shrunk considerably and is now mostly populated by elementary schools and Denver School of the Arts.) In X-English, Raila was capable of incorporating a Shakespearean unit into the curricula, and as part of that she organized student auditions, scene/sonnet direction and even designing and making costumes.
Some of her students were able to audition for and receive stage time at the festival. Most performed scenes from plays or sonnets written by Shakespeare. By far the most popular scene was a portrayal of the famous witches scene from Macbeth. Nicole Blake, a TJ ninth grader, said, “At first it was hard to get into character, but by the end it was easier…it was really fun. I would definitely do that again.” Blake starred with fellow freshmen Marelle Davey and Nicole Brown as the witches. Their portrayal of the scene received positive feedback from all the TJ students interviewed.
One freshman, Shauntay Larson, went above and beyond by auditioning to represent Queen Elizabeth at the opening ceremony, and received the part of attendant. “It was fun. The speech part was a little scary because I didn’t really know what to talk about, but I didn’t really want to be the Queen anyway. I wanted to be an attendant,” Larson said. She still intends to keep trying out for the Queen as she becomes an upperclassman. “The best part was riding in the horse-drawn carriage. Even if I never get to be Queen, that made it worth it. It was really fun, it was really hot, but it’s Colorado in May so thank goodness it wasn’t snowing.” Larson has performed in middle school and in plays with her church.
The Challenge bowl is an annual competition at the Festival wherein schools can enter teams to compete over historical trivia and greater knowledge of a certain play. This year, for the first time in 15 years,TJ freshmen Michael Kutz, Luke Degregory, and Micheal Heinz took the title of 2008 Challenge Bowl Champions. Kutz said, “It’s basically where we answer questions into a microphone and there are two competing teams. This year, for high-school, the questions were about Shakespeare and The Merry Wives of Windsor.” The boys were a huge success and won against Colorado Learning Academy. It took serious dedication to pull off the win. The boys came in at lunch and after school to quiz each other on the material.
Band Teacher Robin Johnson, Dance Instructor Carole Fulkerson, and Vocal Coach Edwina Hebert, all took groups to perform. TJ students sang, danced and played beautiful music in character and in the traditional costumes, which was hot. The violinists shone with an amazing amount of talent that is relatively unrecognized by the rest of TJ. The dancers seemed to get a little confused, but they were laughing and dancing and were a lot of fun to watch. Dancer and vocalist Samara Quay yum is a festival veteran. “The Shakespeare Festival is something I’vie done every year. We work hard and have a lot of fun. It’s definitely a great way to spend the day outside meeting other people and just enjoying yourself,” she said.
TJ was also one of few schools to bring street performers, including balloon artists, but little did the three girls know that they were going to be one of the more popular attractions at the festival. Balloon masters Christine Vliem, Melanie Walker, and Heather Larson were a hit with everyone there. “We just learned. You think their balloon is going to pop but it won’t.” The girls relayed that they were swamped with elementary school kids. However, one of the girls got a five-dollar tip. Good job girls!
Of all people surveyed it was unanimous that they would be interested in going again next year. The entire project got great support from all the students involved, as well as the parents who helped out. The festival is always grateful for the technical support that almost exclusively came from TJ students. Having a basic introduction to Shakespeare can be boring and difficult to understand, but seeing his works come to life on the stage as performed by children is a really unique and powerful experience. Hopefully everyone will have an opportunity to see how cool the festival is, and how fun participating in it can be. Now we absolutely know Spartans go above and beyond at the DPS Shakespeare Festival.
Here’s a list of performers who received ribbons for distinguished performance:
* Nicole Brown, Nicole Blake, and Marelle Davey as the witches from Macbeth,
* Sarah Southard and Anna Becker for performing Greensleeves on guitar,
* Ian Melicoe, Joe Sedig, and Bobby McMacken for interpretation of sonnets,
* Anna Romero and John Cooper for Taming of the Shrew,
* Brandi Buscemi, Audrey Morris-Reihl and Stephanie Acree for Much Ado About
Nothing,
* Hanna Kazlouskaya for Taming of the Shrew,
* Haley Phillipus for Twelfth Night,
* The Pavelle Dancers with Ms. Fulkerson,
* And TJ Strings with Mrs. Johnson.
