Matinee Helps Students Understand Shakespeare

The music stopped, and loud ringing resonated the stage as Orlando, soon to be exiled from the Duchy, slammed Charles, the court wrestler, to the mat. All the actors were moving in slow motion as the dramatic key moment in the first act was performed on the live stage. This was a scene which many students of Mr. Scott’s 12th grade classes who attended the As You Like It student matinee on Sept. 25, remembered well the next day when we wrote our reflections. It was one of the scenes which made the play much more exciting when performed live. 

The play, mostly set in a fictional forest called Arden, was performed in an outdoor theater in Orinda by CAL Shakes. After a long BART ride with about 50 students from Mr. Scott’s 12th grade English classes, as well as two chaperones, Ms. McKamey and Ms. Wetherall, the outdoor setting felt calming and added an immersive atmosphere to the play. 

Seeing the play’s scenes in person seemed to make many students understand the story much better, even after having performed some scenes aloud in preparation for the trip. 

“I liked how dramatic the actors were, it helped me understand the play better, and helped me fill in the blanks about the play’s language,” said Tess Schaefer. 

“It’s best to visualize the reading to better understand the relationship between Orlando and Rosalind, and Ganymede and Phoebe,” said Hugo Nie.

“The character of Touchstone was changed to have more modern humor,” Miguel Campos Lopez said, who performed as the character in his period’s readings of the play. “(Touchstone was) much louder than the other characters, and they way they dressed was different from what I was imagining,” he said, referring to the fact that Touchstone, the court jester, was played by a drag performer who wore extravagant outfits and presented his lines in a showy and animated way. 

“Seeing Shakespeare (plays) acted out instead of just reading it is a different experience,” said Diego Cecilio. “Seeing each of the incredibly talented actors performing the characters lets us see the emotions in the text in person and understand it more.”