“We are such stuff as dreams are made on, rounded with a little sleep.” — “The Tempest”
Four hundred years after the death of William Shakespeare, the Bard still is getting his due in places large and small, including Greenwood.
“This summer, the Greenwood Shakespeare Project will partner with ArtPlace Mississippi and Greenwood Little Theatre to present the first annual Shakespeare Boot Camp for youth,” Steve Iwanski, the project’s founding director, said Monday, which was Shakespeare’s death date.
Iwanski said he hopes 15 to 25 students in grades 7-12 will sign up by Memorial Day, May 30. He is looking for “a diverse mix” from Delta Streets Academy, Pillow Academy, Amanda Elzy High School, Leflore County High School, Greenwood High School, North New Summit School and J.Z. George High School, among others. All are welcome.
“For five weeks, kids will be trained in Shakespeare’s plays and Elizabethan stage conventions, set construction and scenery-costume design,” he said.
The first two weeks of workshops will be held at the Episcopal Church of the Nativity. Students will study theater, movement and performance and then Shakespearean performance.
Then, they will relocate to Greenwood Little Theatre’s W.M. Whittington Jr. Playhouse for set design and construction, followed by scenery, costume and prop design, dress rehearsals and show nights.
GLT volunteers, ArtPlace teachers and Iwanski will provide instruction.
Iwanski, a former high school English teacher, organized the Shakespeare Project and produced “Twelfth Night” with an all-Delta Streets cast at the Confederate Memorial Building March 31.
That performance and the boot camp grew out of Iwanski’s experiences, good and bad, as a high school and college student.
He said the way Shakespeare normally is taught is wrong-headed. Students are told by society that Shakespeare is important, but in school his work is presented “as vaunted literature they must respect and revere.” In college, Iwanski learned better when he took part in a performance of “Richard III.”
“I realized that Shakespeare wasn’t dusty old words on a page, but vibrant, visceral, relevant and demanding art. When I got a chance as an English teacher to introduce Shakespeare to high school students, we treated the text as he treated it — like a script that can be beaten around and interpreted however we wanted,” he said.
“When students are told that they must act out the language and the characters onstage, they automatically begin solving problems about theme, plot, motivation, symbolism, etc. I’m now convinced that this is the only way kids should be learning about Shakespeare.”
He continued, “That’s how I conceived the idea of the Greenwood Shakespeare Project and the summer boot camp. Besides providing an important educational arts opportunity, learning Shakespeare gives these students cultural currency in the society that reveres him already.”
Iwanski, who is employed at Turnrow Book Co. and as a church youth director, last fall asked T. Mac Howard and the staff at Delta Streets if he could work with students at the academy. They were enthusiastic, so he developed a curriculum and, in January, he and Delta Streets students began work on “Twelfth Night.” The 17th century comedy was staged at the Confederate Memorial Building.
During the same period of time, the Greenwood Little Theatre board acted on a suggestion by Becky Palmer that it collaborate with ArtPlace. The latter’s instructors teach skills — such as sewing, painting and building construction — that are used in the theater, said Cam Abel, GLT president. He also sits on ArtPlace’s board. Palmer’s idea bingoed, and Iwanski was brought on board.
GLT will contribute $2,500 to pay ArtPlace’s teachers, and a Mississippi Arts Commission grant is being sought. Iwanski will work as a volunteer, as will each of the assistants from GLT.
Abel, an attorney who is a former teacher, is interested in providing vocational education through the arts and is pleased with prospects for the boot camp.
“I have great optimism that this is going to be fantastic,” he said.
For Iwanski, the boot camp represents the ongoing materialization of a long-held dream. He foresees the Shakespeare Project spreading from one school to the next.
He also sees the collaboration as “a natural match” and hopes the teachers and volunteers will enjoy it as much as the kids. He said, “For everyone involved, I think they’ll come out of this with a refreshed or awakened love for the magic of theater.”
To sign up for the boot camp, go to www.artplacems.com/shakespeare-project. Iwanski can be reached at stephen.iwanski-@gmail.com.
•Contact Susan Montgomery at 581-7235 or smontgomery@gwcommonwealth.com.
