Interview with Pursued by a Bear.net - (part 2 of 3)

This is a continuation of Shakespeare for Kids of the interview with Pursued By a Bear, part 2. This interview is with Jessi Nowack, comedian, actress, and an all around fun person who loves Shakespeare.

Tell me a little something about who you are and what you do.

Jessi Nowack, internet voice actress and comedian. I do a show for Pursuedbyabear.net called “Reading is Dum”. It dissects high school required books and makes them fun.

How did you get into comedy? With a name like "no-wacking" I can come up with about six reasons on my own :)

My friends have always told me I was funny, so when I began my voice acting career, I decided to make parodies that I could voice act in. Killed two birds with one stone. Loved it so much, I stuck with it. I love entertaining people. And yes, when your last name is Nowack, you have to have a sense of humor. :P

So, can you give us an example(s) of what the other kids would interpret when they read, "It is the east..."

Mostly they would just stare blankly, but if they took a guess at what it meant and failed, it'd be pretty funny. For example, when we were reading Othello and our teacher asked us to explain what a "green eyed monster" is, one kid was like, "I don't think that's appropriate to talk about in school." I think I know what he thought it was.

I like your concept of "reading is dum", can you give me a brief summary of it's goal and a link to see it?

The goal of "Reading is Dum" is to help teens learn and understand high school required reading and actually enjoy it, whether it be by explaining the book more thoroughly or by putting it into more modern terms. I hate that students just look up Sparknotes, memorize something for a test, and then are done with the book forever. I want them to enjoy learning about the book and, as I'm a teenager myself, it'll be a relief to see me teach the material rather than a teacher who's mad at the world and talks too fast for you to write notes down. Not that I'm saying all teachers are like that; just saying we've all had that teacher at one point. As for a link, check out my stuff here.

Where can someone find out where you are doing your next comedy act or production?

I update my site, Wack Attack, as often as I can. There you can find my complete resume, my blog, (in which I talk about what recent parodies I've been in, update on what videos I'm working on, etc.) and lots of other stuff. I'll also post when I come out with a new "Reading is Dum" so that's the best place to visit to see when I have new videos out. You can visit the Wack Attack at http://nowacking.pursuedbyabear.net/

What’s your background with Shakespeare?

(In highschool) I could understand things other students couldn’t. They’d see, “It is the East, and Juliet is the sun” and not understand a word of it, but I did. I had particular attraction to Shakespearean literature.

What was the reason that started you doing Shakespeare videos?

I transferred to a public high school for my senior year and I was sick of students falling asleep in class or paying attention, but not understanding. I wanted to give them a way of tolerating, heck even “enjoying” literature.

How long have you been doing Shakespeare-related productions?

Technically haven’t done one, yet. Waiting for things to slow down.

Was it intimidating at all to approach Shakespeare through this type of format?

No, no, been doing comedy for years. It is a natural, familiar style for me to be writing in.

What are your long term goals for PursuedByABear.net?

Stupid cliché, but just want to help kids. If I can help one person, then that'll be cool.

What’s your one piece of advice for other educators trying to reach students with Shakespeare?

Don’t be a record. Whatever you have to say in a boring way about a book, they’ve already heard it. Gotta connect with kids or you’ll lose them before the lesson even begins. Connect events in book with modern day situations and such. Oh, and for God’s sake, PLEASE do not rap anything in the lesson plan. Ever. Don’t. Unless you wanna end up as a viral video on Youtube.

What’s your favorite Shakespeare play?

Only read two, “Othello” and “Romeo and Juliet”. Both were really good, really ironic twists. Preferred “Romeo and Juliet,” but bias: love “West Side Story”

Who is your favorite Shakespeare Character(s)?

Mercutio. Such a free spirit, punny, cool character Causes a lot of stuff to go down.

If you could spend an evening with the Bard, what would you do?

We’d probably find every copy of “Gnomeo and Juliet” and destroy them before the movie’s released. Then go have some pie.

Last Comments?

Stay in school, kids!

Check out the interview via video:

Part 1 of Pursued by a bear.net interview can be found here.

Interview with Pursued by a Bear.net - (part 1 of 3)

One of our goals at Playing With Plays, Shakespeare for Kids, is to get educators great resources for engaging their kids with Shakespeare. I recently had the privilege to meet and work with another Shakespeare group called, Pursued by a Bear. Their main goal is to make Shakespeare interesting and fun (NOT BORING) via video. Audience: Teens and adults.

Teachers, this really is a wonderful place to connect your highschoolers to the Bard. The important piece here... HAVE FUN!

One of the main drivers of PursuedByABear.net and their overall concept is Sharky:

Tell me a little something about who you are and what you do.

I'm the Founder and House musician of http://pursuedbyabear.net. I also run a Shakespeare database ( http://plays.pursuedbyabear.net ) which has all of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets.

What’s your background with Shakespeare?

Where I'm from, we didn't really study Shakespeare, so I picked it up on my own. Eventually, I was tasked as the fight choreographer for a production of Romeo and Juliet, and ended up playing Romeo. To date, it's the only Shakespeare production I've been involved with.

Hey, you also do fight choreography? How did you start doing that?

I've been doing Fight Choreography since I was a high school sophomore (initially, because no one else wanted to do it), and most of what I apply are what I saw in Martial Arts and Swashbuckler movies, observing what looks good on camera and putting my own spin on the fight sequence.

Any quick advice that you want to give on doing fight choreography?

Pretty basic pointer would be to start slow until the actors get the rhythm down, and remind them that they're not really supposed to be trying to hurt each other, but to look cool (which is why you often see excessively slow, wide swings to simulate force when a character is carrying a "heavy sword.") Also, for whoever is directing, make sure that the walls on either side of the stage are a completely different color than whichever weapons are being used. This allows the actors to see the weapons in motion better, thus allowing them to avoid injury by being able to duck out of the way should the other actor make a movement error. I used this concept during the Romeo and Juliet production I was in, since both actors were using thin fencing foils, and I wanted them to see where the blades were at all times.

What was the reason that started you doing Shakespeare videos?

I saw The RSC's production of Hamlet starring David Tennant and Patrick Stewart, and it looked very alive and very modern (despite using the classical language) and I thought more people should know about it, especially people who hated Shakespeare during High School archaic.

How long have you been doing Shakespeare-related productions?

Besides Romeo and Juiet, nothing until Pursued By A Bear. I did talk about Shakespeare and aspects of his plays with various people, but no real, direct involvement. I am far more active now than I was back then.

Why Pursued By a Bear?

It's from “The Winter's Tale” Act III.3, and I would really like to see how the original actors reacted to see that stage direction on their scripts. It was a really funny mental image to me, so I decided to use that for the site's name.

Why Sharky?

It's a nickname I chose for myself, because Sharks are cool. Specifically, Mako Sharks, but Hammerheads are pretty neat as well.

Was it intimidating at all to approach Shakespeare through this type of format?

I didn't find it intimidating at all, since my original plan was to take a look at Hamlet from the perspective of a Film Major. However, once Cassius was onboard to present it side-by-side as a Shakespeare adaptation, any small doubts that may have existed were immediately extinguished. Unlike myself, she does have the “Shakespeare Cred” to talk about the Theater aspects of the adaptation, which would placate the Shakespeare aficionados that would enevitably view the video.

What are your long term goals for PursuedByABear.net?

I have quite a simple answer to that, and that is to keep using it as a way to make learning about Classical Theater, Literature, and History fun.

What’s your one piece of advice for other educators trying to reach students with Shakespeare?

Teach them as plays, and let your students have their own opinions of the characters and story. Trust that the play's plot and story will still hold itself together, regardless of your students' interpretation of the characters. Shakespeare wrote these characters (fairly) realistically, and much like real people, their actions will still be (relatively) real, regardless of what your students think. The point is to engage them in the play, and let them realize exactly why the storytelling and character development in these plays still endure even today.

What’s your favorite Shakespeare play?

For artistry, Richard II. For story, Hamlet. It knows exactly where it wants to go from the very beginning, and barely ever delineates from the main plot. The fact that the on-rails story is still engaging despite the 3-hour run time is a testament to Shakespeare's storytelling ability.

Who is your favorite Shakespeare Character(s)?

That would be Rosalind from As You Like It, who is one of the stronger female characters in Shakespeare's plays. Admittedly, I like strong women.

If you could spend an evening with the Bard, what would you do?

I would ask him what was going on in his life when he wrote The Merchant of Venice. As far as I can tell, it's the Frankenstein's Monster of theater. It has four completely different plots that are barely linked together by a few lines of throwaway dialogue. They don't even have any tangible common themes, like Shakespeare wrote the play under duress, or in a hurry, and just grabbed four random manuscripts, wrote some extra lines, and made a chimera of a play out of it.

Any last comments?

If you're an educator (or something to that effect), try to make learning about Shakespeare fun. True, not everyone will like it, and very few people will use their knowledge of Shakespeare once they're out of school and working, but at least let them remember it as something that was fun to study.

Thank you very much for the Questions. This has been Sharky. Take Care!

You can find Sharky at PursuedByABear.net

You can find melodramatic fun Shakespeare for Kids at PlayingWithPlays.com

Part 2 of the interview can be found here

Video of the interview can be found here:

Overcoming anxiety about teaching Shakespeare to Kids

We recently had an opportunity to work with a homeschool middle school teacher from Michigan who wanted to teach Shakespeare to her kids. At the end of the entire process of teaching the kids Shakespeare, she said the following:

"I went from a feeling of anxiety and pressure to a feeling of joy and success through the course of this class."

What a great and promising sentiment.

Here is a little more about Catherine and her experience teaching with Shakespeare for Kids:

Shakespeare4kid: Tell me a little something about who you are and what you do?

Catherine: I was a vocal music education major and taught public school for two years before starting a family. I love teaching, particularly music and drama. Words are my passion of mine; I love to read, and greatly regret the loss of wonderful words in our modern vocabulary. I hope to instill in my children and in all those I teach a real love for the written and spoken word.

Shakespeare4kid: How long have you been teaching homeschool?

Catherine: I have been homeschooling since my oldest child started school; I now have four children, ages 12, 11, 9, and 3.

Shakespeare4kid: Was this your first foray into the homeschool drama arena?

Catherine: No, I have done some simple plays in the past, but the children in our cooperative group were all quite young when we started. This play has been the most involved production we have attempted

Shakespeare4kid: Tell us, why did you pick Shakespeare for Kids Julius Caesar?

Catherine: Many of us in the group spent the year studying Roman and Greek history; I wanted a play that would fit into and expand that subject, and I felt it was high time to introduce them to Shakespeare.

Shakespeare4kid: Now that the kids have performed Caesar, what do they think about Shakespeare?

Catherine: When asked whether they enjoyed the actual play or the adapted version, they were much more enthusiastic about the version they performed. I think most still find his writing completely over their heads, which is to be expected, as they are around 7th grade and really haven't studied him before. I do hope that at least they begin to see the wonderful richness of his works and that they will be less intimidated in the future.

Shakespeare4kid: Was it intimidating at all to approach Shakespeare with kids through this format?

Catherine: No, not at all. In fact, I did my best to pull in as much material from his writing as possible. I began with the very first scene of the play, with the children acting out the townsfolk and me reading and dramatizing the tribunes' roles

Shakespeare4kid: If you had to do this performance over again, what would you do differently?

Catherine: I would give myself more time. One hour a week for 10 weeks was not enough to really come out with a good finished product. I was disappointed that some of the children were not able to internalize my directions (keeping your face toward the audience, standing confidently, speaking loudly and clearly) as well as they might have done if they had had more time to practice.

Shakespeare4kid: What’s your one piece of advice for other homeschool drama educators?

Catherine: Make it enjoyable for yourself! If you are not enjoying it, the children know it instinctively and then they learn the wrong thing. They might come to think Shakespeare is too hard or worse, it is boring.

Shakespeare4kid: ahhh, too true! What’s your favorite Shakespeare play?

Catherine: I think my favorite play is the one I am reading at the time you ask me. :) I really don't know. Perhaps The Merchant of Venice. I feel so heartbroken at Shylock's plight; his speech stirs me so deeply, and that W. S. could write such a speech at a time when Jews were so universally hated is amazing to me. I love that the women, rather than staying safely behind doors and weeping piously, fly to meet the crisis and prove well able to resolve it. The play moves me very much, though it seems very dark, and though I do not think it was entirely just that Shylock should have come to so miserable an end. It is also completely possible that I bring my own perspective to it and read it as I like, not knowing the intention of the playwright or the significance it had in its own time.

Shakespeare4kid: Who is your favorite Shakespeare Character(s)?

Catherine: I cannot name a favorite. I admire the character of Brutus, though Shakespeare altered his historic character to make a better story. I was completely fascinated by Othello when I watched him played by Lawrence Olivier. And I enjoy Portia (see above).

Shakespeare4kid: If you could spend an evening with the Bard, what would you two do?

Catherine: I think it would be fun to row a boat up and down the Avon and listen to him telling stories, though I have some doubt as to whether I would find stories taken from his life entirely satisfactory

Catherine is off to her next foray with the kids and the Bard's Hamlet for Kids. Break a leg!

Shakespeare competition with Romeo & Juliet for Kids

I recently met a teacher from Seattle who decided to use our Romeo & Juliet for Kids script to enter a Theater tournament for kids in Portland, Oregon. I was able to spend a few minutes with her to see what the experience was like and to give advice to teachers trying to reach children with Shakespeare.

Shakespeare4kid: Tell me a little something about who you are and what you do.

Sandra: I am a 45-year old Swiss/South African and have worked in the cruise industry for my entire career prior to “retiring” to stay home with my little boy. I have been on stage since the age of 6 and was very actively involved with stage production (acting) right through till university. I had great drama teachers and dreamed of pursuing a career onstage via the London Stage School. My mother had other ideas and wanted me to learn something I could use first and so I earned a BA Hons degree in languages and literature in South Africa followed by an intense hotel school training in Switzerland. When I retired from the cruise industry, I started volunteering at school and church and ended up being busier than when I was working full time.

Shakespeare4kid: How long have you been teaching drama?

Sandra: I was serving as PTA Vice Pres when a parent asked us for funds to pay a director to direct the school play for the interschool competition you know all about! My first reaction was – why pay someone? I’ll do it!!! And a dream came true! We won that year, came second the next. During that time I also started teaching for one of the local theatres here in Seattle and started a

school drama club which was much enjoyed by all my students. I have been teaching for 3 years now.

Shakespeare4kid: Tell us a little bit about the competition you were recently in?

Sandra: The drama competition is part of L.E.S.T. – Lutheran Elementary School Tournament –which takes place in Portland each February. All Lutheran schools in the western part of the US compete. The competition includes academics, sports, music, art, science, drama, cheer/drill/dance etc. It’s a huge 3-day event and a very exciting one! It’s great seeing our kids competing and doing the best of their very best!

Shakespeare4kid: We were very honored to hear that you chose to use our Romeo & Juliet for Kids script for your competition, but what made you decide to take on Shakespeare with a younger audience to work with?

Sandra: I mentioned earlier that I started an after-school drama club for the middle school kids starting 4th grade thru 8th. I really wanted to offer something that wasn’t just about putting on a play and performing for an audience – the LEST competition would take care of that – but something that they could take with them as they go through school life. I found your plays online and thought the timing of the plays was perfect and it gave me a flexible cast to work with as I had no idea how many students would end up signing up. My classes ended up being structured as follows: 30 mins - Creative Mime – learning about the rudiments of good acting. 30 mins – Shakespeare Discussion while the kids ate their afternoon snack. I got some good picture books from the library and divided up the bard’s life into segments for each week’s class: Shakespeare’s life; the times he lived in; his theatre – the Globe; his plays etc etc. I made sure that I picked out interesting, horrifying and fun facts and made it into a discussion – rather than a lecture. 60 mins – How to put on a play. Again, I divided up the A to Z of stage production into segments that we worked through each week: auditions; read-throughs; blocking; rehearsal; lighting/sound/costumes; performance. I took some aspects to highlight good stage acting techniques, such as sword-fighting onstage, falling onstage, fighting onstage, dying onstage etc. (they LOVED this!!!) The play we used to put all this together was your Midsummer Night’s Dream for Kids – very funny when you consider the love story tangle and the age group! The kids had a wonderful time at after-school drama club and I have been asked by the principle to offer more.

Shakespeare4kid: Now that the kids have performed R&J, what do they think about Shakespeare?

Sandra: They became very familiar with the language, the themes, the over-the-top performances that were required. They had a lot of fun and I am sure that when the time comes for them to read Shakespeare at school – they will be head and shoulders above the other kids!

Shakespeare4kid: How did you see kids respond to this type of Shakespeare?

Sandra: They enjoyed it since it contained all the aspects that kids enjoy to do onstage – fighting, dying dramatically, being silly, being regal – just taking things over the top which this age group loves to do anyway!

Shakespeare4kid: Was it intimidating at all to approach Shakespeare with kids through this format?

Sandra: Not at all – you made the language clear and yet were able to incorporate some of the most famous lines he wrote. The kids were very interested as to why things were put the way they were at that time – for example: “Do you bite your thumb at me, sir?” – wow – that was the line that really fascinated them and the provenance thereof. I heard it around the school for several weeks afterwards! Another example: all the kids had heard Juliet’s balcony lament – but now they learned that “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” doesn’t mean “Romeo where are you?”, it means “why are you called Romeo Montague – the enemy”! Boy – were they surprised but the lights went on!! It made them more attuned to other such lines. The intimidation factor for this age group is the romance between the two – but we made it into something very funny – for instance – the kissing was replaced with high 5’s – even the very last one: “thus with a kiss I die” and the “dead” Juliet puts up her hand and high 5’s him. We performed for Kindergartners thru 5th grade after the competition and parents were telling me the next day that the kids came home VERY excited about the fabulous and funny play they had seen and were repeating lines they had heard!

Shakespeare4kid: If you had to do this performance over again, what would you do differently?

Sandra: Absolutely nothing – we loved it! I even had great costumes and for clarity’s sake had all the Montagues in Blue and the Capulets in Red.

Shakespeare4kid: If you were going to give educators advice on incorporating elementary drama with Shakespeare – what would be the one piece of advice you would give?

Sandra: Keep it simple, keep it fun and slowly but surely incorporate Shakespeare’s life and times into the lesson spicing things up with fascinating details and lots of sword fighting and dramatic dying!

Shakespeare4kid: What’s your favorite Shakespeare play?

Sandra: King Lear and Midsummer Night’s Dream

Shakespeare4kid: Who is your favorite Shakespeare Character(s)?

Sandra: King Lear; Mercutio, Queen Mab

Shakespeare4kid: Favorite quote?

Sandra: Double, double toil and trouble………

Shakespeare4kid: If you could spend an evening with the Bard, what would you two do?

Sandra: I would ask him all about his life and times – fascinating stuff since there are very few facts about him.

Shakespeare4kid: Oh yeah, and my favorite, what’s on your iPod?

Sandra: Genesis, Creed, Josh Groban, Evita, Meatloaf, Nickelback, Journey, Eric Clapton, etc a real mish-mash!

Shakespeare4kid: Any last comments?

Sandra: Yes, thank you SO much for doing what you are doing! You are taking the intimidation out of Shakespeare and letting the kids look forward to reading him at school, rather than dread him and be bored to tears! Thank you!

"Shake it up" with Shakespeare and Elementary Kids

Recently we were able to get in touch with a wonderfully gifted AIG teacher from North Carolina, Debra Williamson. She took a few of our plays and did a trio of melodramatic Shakespeare skits with her kids. They performed Midsummer, Romeo & Juliet, and Macbeth. She referred to it as "Shake it up, Shakespeare". Since this was such a wonderful way to approach her elementary children, we asked her to answer a few questions about her experience. Here ya go...

1) Did you find using the Shakespeare for Kids book series by Brendan P. Kelso an easy way to deliver Shakespeare to the kids? Yes.

2) If you were to do it over again, what would you do differently? Not email Brendan Kelso every day? Yes, we had several conversations, which is what made the experience for both us, and Debra, more enjoyable.

3) For teachers that are approaching the subject of teaching Shakespeare for the first time (yes, it can be very intimidating) what advice would you give them?

Sir Ken Robinson's catchline is "If kids don't know, they'll have a go." Teachers should "have a go" at Shakespeare in the elementary school because they are laying the foundation for middle and high school when Shakespeare is part of the core curriculum. Our unit of study was based on the developmental age of students and incorporating creativity into the unit. I looked for resources that made Shakespeare easy for young students to understand and that fit best with my style of teaching. I started the unit by sending my students a letter from Shakespeare from Postcards from Shakespeare by Wendy Conklin and Christi Parker. I copied it on parchment paper and sealed it. After reading the letter, we came up with more questions we had about Shakespeare. I had other resources in the room for them to use to answer their questions...Shakespeare for Kids by Colleen Aagesen and Margie Blumberg, Who Was William Shakespeare by Celeste Davidson Mannis, William Shakespeare and the Globe by Aliki, Tales From Shakespeare by Marcia Williams, and Kids Discover Magazine. I created a project for the students based on multiple intelligences and Marzanno's questioning strategies. After we were pretty well versed on Shakespeare the man, we moved onto the plays. I used the Scholastic Teaching Resources: Shakespeare Mini-Books, the Shakespeare Can Be Fun! series by Lois Burdett and Playing with Plays by Brendan P. Kelso. I tried to find plays for my students to perform that were featured in all three of those resources. I gave it to the kids, and they came up with their own unique interpretations and I basically just sat back at that point and filmed what they created in class.

4) Of the PlayingWithPlays books, which one did your kids perform? Did they enjoy it?

We performed Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. They enjoyed all of it, because they were able to put their own spin on it, and I enjoyed watching fifth graders quote Shakespeare. Their parents loved their performances, so it was a win-win-win! Macbeth was the favorite of the viewing audience, Romeo and Juliet for the performers, and we struggled with a Midsummer Night's Dream...but I think Shakespeare did, too!

5) We truly believe in a creative license with the kid's interpretations of the plays, what would you say is the most memorable creative kid moment during your performance?

The student who played Puck turned him into a superhero. He TOTALLY ditched the costume I had for him, showed up at school in a batman cape, and zoomed around the stage during the performance. Lady Macbeth was pretty funny, wandering around the stage in red gloves. The group that performed Romeo and Juliet incorporated Michael Jackson's Thriller dance into the Capulet ball.

6) If you were to suggest a few lesson plans to incorporate into teaching Shakespeare to students, what would they be and why?

I think I answered that in question #3. They were hooked from the moment they opened up their parchment paper letter from Shakespeare. I had a finger puppet of Shakespeare on the board, with "WHO was (fingerpuppet)? written for the day's lesson. Incorporate as many higher level thinking activities as possible...don't ask kids to make a model of the Globe theater...ask them to design a new and improved Globe theater incorporating a few details from the original and explain why. One of my students watercolored a scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream (Aagesen's book), but painted the faces as large oval circles so that whoever looked at her work could imagine what the characters looked like. I am stealing that idea for next year. The students will paint a water color of a scene, leave part of the scene blank, and pass it on to another student to finish. Then I will have them pair and share about the picture.

7) Did YOU have fun?

I had great fun. The most important aspect of this unit was that the kids had fun learning about Shakespeare, and carried it over into their real lives. They were renting Shakespeare movies (I had to caution parents) and talking about Shakespeare to their relatives.

For more teaching resources for Shakespeare and kids check out PlayingWithPlays.com

Book Review - Break a Leg!

I am very diligent about getting kids on stage to perform Shakespeare. Now mind you, I do mean in a FUN way (the whole reason I wrote the melodramatic Shakespeare books). Following this mantra, I came across Lise Friedman, co-author of the new movie coming out Letters to Juliet. Well Lise is a performing arts guru and has authored a book called Break a Leg! The Kids' Guide to Acting & Stagecraft.

After reading through this book (it is more like a kids acting bible than a book) several items popped out to me:

1. Definitions, activities, and notes - on the sidebars of all the pages are various items to help the actor learn more about this wonderful craft.
2. Well organized - the book is broken up into several chapters that make it very easy, and quick, to get a group started on an activity.
3. TONS of activities - there are a plethora of different activities you can play with, no matter what your group size.
4. Pictures - well, my English teachers can tell you this, I was a lot better with the books with pictures than the ones with just words (probably my ADHD conveniently kicking in). If they would teach the class with comics, I would have finally received an A! Seriously though (well, as serious as I can get) there are a lot of photos in Break a Leg! that really help visualize the topic that is being discussed. Not only are they of the kids, but of professional actors showing that these activities really can get you to the bigs.

All in all, this book is one of the better kids acting books I have seen. I always have it out at the classes that I teach just for the kids to dig through and get ideas from. If you are teaching drama to elementary, middle, or home school kids Break a Leg! is a must have to get the kids in the acting groove! There are sooooo many activities in there that you could literally make a lesson plan for everyday of the year, just from the quantity of topics listed. From warm-ups to dress up to building a character to slap stick to what's a green room to improv to monologs to etc. etc. etc..... you get the picture.

So the next time you are starting your kids on a Shakespeare for Kids melodramatic performance by Playing With Plays be sure to have Break a Leg! handy as you break the ice!

Interview with the Reduced Shakespeare Company's Austin Tichenor

It was a great night. I got off work early, got some great laughs from my son, and then I had free tickets to see the Reduced Shakespeare Company (RSC). For someone who writes shortened, melodramatic Shakespeare for kids books, what could be better?! Oh wait, I know, to meet and interview one third of the RSC. I say one third because there are only three main players on stage. There is Matt Rippy, the youngest of the triplets, Reed Martin, one of the writers and managing partner, and Austin Tichenor, another writer, performer, managing partner, and leader of the RSC podcasts (funny! check them out!). I was lucky enough to spend a few minutes with Austin after their show at the Cal Poly SLO campus.

With both of us breaking out our Apple gear to capture this great interview, my first question was launched: “You’ve been doing this for how many years?” Austin: “Well, in 1981 this started as a pass-the-hat act at Renaissance fairs working 20 minute slots. First there was Hamlet, and then came Romeo and Juliet to kind of mix it up a little bit.” What was really interesting to hear was that the RSC was posed with the opportunity to do the entire works of William Shakespeare. They asked themselves, “we’ve done two plays, there’s only 35 more, how tough can that be?” They decided to make it their “swan song,” as Austin puts it, and to perform it at the Edinburgh festival in 1987. At this point, the RSC blew up as they started getting bookings and interest from all over the globe. The original founders have stepped out since then, but the second coming of Reduced Shakespeare started to fall into place: 1989 Reed Martin joined as one of the founders, Daniel Singer, decided to leave. Austin joined in 1992 when Jess Winfield moved on, and Matt Rippy joined in 1996 as Adam Long’s wife decided that it was time to settle down and have a family. Matt also mentioned that he emails Adam’s wife every week to thank her for his opportunity! However, to get back to the original question: “You’ve been doing this for how many years?” The company: 29 years. Austin, well, July 1^st will be Austin’s 18^th year with the RSC. Woohoo!

18 years, wow. That’s a while to be doing the same shtick. I mean, they do keep it fresh with Google references, Twilight references, ‘LOL’ references, but this leads to my next question… “So you have been doing the same shows for 18 years, how does it not get old?” Austin: “You know, making people laugh never gets old.” He could have ended it right there. I have always believed this but never said it. He nailed it in one sentence: “Making people laugh never gets old, that’s the thing,” and boy were people laughing. There is something to be said about always laughing, although there may or may not be studies on this somewhere in some science book from some fancy college. But I bet you people live longer who laugh a lot, it’s just fact that I made up and it has to be that way, dontcha’ think? Austin: “Making people laugh is a pretty good gig.” You betcha!

What also caught my interest was their willingness to make people laugh anywhere in the world. I mean these guys have played the White House, The Criterion Theatre in London (for 9 YEARS!), The San Diego Repertory Theatre, The Hong Kong Arts Festival, The Liverpool Comedy Festival, and the Folger Shakespeare Theatre, to name a few (check out here for a bigger list). Living in a town half the size of the Rose Bowl, such as I do, this easily sparked my next question: “You just spent two weeks in Times Square, playing to sold out houses in New York at the New Victory Theatre, and two days later you are here, San Luis Obispo. What gives?” Austin: “Basically, a gig’s a gig. You go where they book ya. Sadly, it has gotten more expensive to go places because travel costs so much. But you know, it’s a living. We’re lucky. We get to make people laugh, but we’re lucky to be making our livings in the theater.”

Traveling all this time easily led to, “You have a family?” Austin: “Yeah, my son is thirteen and a half and my daughter turns ten tomorrow! It’s definitely difficult having a family and doing all this traveling. My wife’s in the business and is a writer.” Keenly I picked out my next question: “Now, you’re a pretty good writer, too?” Austin: “Well, Reed and I have written all the shows but Shakespeare (abridged) (for a list of abridged masterpieces, check here). We are currently writing the RSC’s 7^th show, The Complete World of Sports (abridged).”

A few other questions came about along the way: “I noticed that you are an all male stage show, yet in one of your photos on your website, you have a girl, what gives?” Austin: “When we wrote ‘The Complete Millennium Musical (abridged)", we decided that the harmonies would really benefit from having a female voice, and we also thought it would be fun to change it up a little, casting-wise. The trouble was, we weren't sure where we could find an actress-comedienne who also had musical theatre chops. Then we realized - wait, I'm married to one. My wife Dee Ryan has her BFA in musical theatre, and spent five years in Chicago writing and performing shows at Second City. Having Dee in the show also finally gave the RSC a female sensibility. Unfortunately, it was Reed's.”

“What are some of the craziest moments you have had on stage?” Austin: “I don't know about ‘craziest,’ but some of the most memorable moments were when a guy suddenly jumped onstage during the show in Houghton, Michigan and for a brief second we understood what John Lennon must have felt (he turned out to be harmless). And we caught a kid asleep in the second row in San Diego so we took a picture of him and tweeted it mid-performance.”

“Do you ever talk to or see Adam Long, or any of the founders?” Austin: “Sure. We're in touch with Adam a lot about a variety of things. He's doing well, and of course he wrote AMERICA and BIBLE with me and Reed. We see Jess and Daniel every now and then as well. Search for any of their names on our website and you'll find great interviews with them, including this one with Jess about his new (not child-friendly) book NY NAME IS WILL.”

“If you could give one piece of advice to educators trying to reach kids with Shakespeare, what would it be?” Austin: “Shakespeare was meant to be performed, not read, so get the kids to a good live performance. Or have them watch a good movie (I like the Leonardo DiCaprio ROMEO + JULIET and the Kevin Kline MIDSUMMER; also 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU). Or failing all that, have them 'speak the speech' - yes, it's archaic but it can begin to sound natural and kids are amazed when it starts to make sense even if you don't know exactly what each word means. It's akin to the joy of learning a new language. A good way to get them comfortable with the language is to get them to swear - our Michael Faulkner talks about how he teaches this in Podcast #8 WORDS WORDS WORDS - this podcast also features my kids swearing.” Swearing, I love it! Another great place to get some Shakespeare insults flowing with your kids is from this handy worksheet from PlayingWithPlays.com.

“And lastly, what’s on your ipod?” Austin: “Rippy was just going through my iPod looking for something embarrassing and he didn't find anything. Mostly I think because my collection is so broad and eclectic. I've got everything on there from Gilbert & Sullivan to Lady Gaga. (That said, the theme to the TV show "Enterprise" with Scott Bakula is mildly indefensible).”

RSC has grown from their roots as a comedy group to a theater company with the help of Austin’s background and experience. Currently they have about 9 actors in their rotation traveling and doing their shtick all over the globe. At their peak, they had about 5 companies out at any one time.

The show was wonderful, and my gut hurt afterwards from laughing (at least I think that’s what it was). What really caught my attention was the audience participation where they guys pull an Ophelia from the audience to scream on stage. They don’t just have her go up there and scream, they get the ENTIRE audience involved. And there is nothing cooler than seeing the audience yelling 4 different chants ( 1) “maybe, maybe not” 2) “get the to a nunnery!” 3) “Paint an inch thick!” 4) “cut the crap, Hamlet, my biological clock is ticking, and if you liked it you should have put a ring on it!” It’s this Id, Ego, Super-ego thing….oh, I can’t explain, just go see the show) at Ophelia while she is on stage, really setting her up to, frankly, just be insane. After that she lets out this howl that is, well, impressive.

In a nutshell, the Reduced Shakespeare Company is phenomenal. I was lucky enough to go see them two days in a row, to their “adult” version the night before, and their “almost adult” version the next morning for the schools in town. I can tell you this, without their help and inspiration, I know of about 100+ 6^th graders over the past 5 years that would still not be caring about Shakespeare. They make Shakespeare fun and easily accessible to anyone who has had a tough time digesting all the Bard has to offer. Isn’t that all of us? So, stop reading this, take your kids and GO SEE THEM! Your kids will think Shakespeare is a really cool cat, heck, he even wore an earring!