What light from yonder window…

YEAR 7 and 8 students from Lake Illawarra High School received a taste of Shakespeare last week with the visit of the Austar sponsored Bell Shakespeare Actors at Work program designed to introduce regional high school students to Shakespeare.

According to actor Emily Brennan, part of the philosophy behind Bell Shakespeare is to take the works of the classic playwright and put them into the context of modern life, to give Shakespeares plays greater meaning and relevance for younger audiences.

As one of the other actors, Sam Anderson explained to the students, Shakespeares plays are packed with love, humour, action and drama and as such are little different to many modern day stories.

What we are going to do today is to break down parts of Romeo and Juliet and A Mid-summers Night Dream to show the kids that love, humour, action and drama in a context they can understand and relate to in their day to day lives, said Sam.

After the program, more than one of the students expressed their surprise at how much they had enjoyed.

You tend to think of Shakespeare as really boring, but these guys made it really interesting and fun, said one of the students.

I didnt know much about Shakespeare except that his stuff was really old and I was surprised that something written so long ago was so much life is today, said another.

When asked whether they had enjoyed the performance by the actors, the response from the audience was a resounding yes, according to Lake Illawarra High Schools Sue Jackson who helped organised the visit by the Bell Shakespeare actors to the school.