College Students Bring ‘The Bard’ Alive at the Upper School

Duh, duh, duh, duh . . .

Guh, guh, guh, guh . . .

Phuh, phuh, phuh, phuh . . .  

If you were eavesdropping outside Ridgway Auditorium on a recent Friday, we wouldn’t blame you for wondering why on earth Principia upper schoolers were working on basic alphabet sounds.

But don’t worry! We haven’t sent these teenagers back to preschool. They were just practicing the very same breathing and vocal exercises used by actors at London’s world-renowned Globe Theatre—exercises shared with them by a group of Principia College students, recently returned from studying abroad in England.

The visiting College drama troupe, which included several School graduates, presented an excerpt to all Upper Schoolers from William Shakespeare’s Pericles, Prince of Tyre, complete with intricately choreographed sword fights and scenes of Grecian revelry. They then led a short workshop to share interpretive and acting techniques and their new understandings of Shakespeare with School students enrolled in the theatre arts program.

The brainchild of Liesl Ehmke and Chrissy Steele, of the School and College drama departments respectively, this collaboration is part of a deliberate effort to promote interchange between the two campuses. (Other examples include the School’s Roots and Shoots Club’s attendance at environmental talks in Elsah; College Senior Ken Baughman’s presentation on sea turtles to the Lower School at the invitation of the Oceans Club; and a Middle School visit to Marshall Brooks Library to learn about the College’s collection of rare Bible translations.)

“We hoped this would be a unique opportunity for the College students to express leadership qualities and share what they had learned . . . and for the Upper School students to appreciate Shakespeare from an actor’s standpoint,” explained Ehmke. The event, she added, was also a way for Upper School graduates now at the College “to give back and bless current students at the School.”

And so it was for Hunter Hoffman (US’08), one of several former upper schoolers in the production. Being back on the Ridgway stage “brought back a lot of wonderful memories,” said Hoffman, who played a swashbuckling suitor in Pericles. He gratefully recalled how School faculty, staff, and house parents enthusiastically supported his passion for acting. Now, equipped with a “larger appreciation and understanding of how truly talented Shakespeare was,” Hoffman was delighted to be sharing his excitement at his alma mater.

Back on the stage, as the College thespians led upper schoolers through exercises on movement and dialogue, drama professor Steele called out, “Remember, the Shakespearean actor needs to be a detective!” She underscored the “many significant clues” that the playwright provides through his careful use and juxtaposition of vowel and consonant, verse and prose, and different terms of address.

Several upper schoolers who confessed to a limited familiarity with Shakespeare said they found the workshop an enjoyable eye-opener. Which is exactly what Ehmke was looking for! “Experiences like this really help spark students’ interest in learning more about the Bard,” she said.

In fact, if you’d hung around Ridgway long enough, you, too, would have learned some interesting facts about Shakespeare—and, perhaps, been relieved to hear students move on from their voice exercises to deliver stirring lines from A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Much Ado about Nothing.