Actors from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland will visit Sweet Home High School next week to perform and instruct students in theater arts.
“This is the third and final year of the Shakespeare school visit partnership program,” said English teacher Tomas Rosa, noting that the visits are funded by a grant. The program has also included visits by SHHS teachers to workshops, he said. He said without the grant, such a visit would cost $550.
The upcoming program will focus on “The Tempest,” Rosa said, but it will deal with some modern drama as well.
“Really, the plays don’t matter. It’s all geared toward cracking the code that’s Shakespeare and making it relevant for today,” he said.
Actors will work with freshmen and sophomores on Monday and Tuesday morning, after a performance for the student body Monday morning. Then, Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday, they will work with juniors and seniors.
Plus, there will be a free performance for the general public at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the auditorium.
Rosa said many of the actors involved in the program have acted in TV shows students may have seen.
“They’re not necessarily major actors, but they’ve played small parts,” he said.
On Oct. 29-30 44 students and teachers from Sweet Home traveled to Ashland for a hands-on workshop that included performances of “My Fair Lady” and Shakespeare’s “King Lear.”
“They gave us a backstage tour and we got to see one of the sets completely rebuilt in, like, 15 minutes,” Rosa said. “It was totally unbelievable – 40 guys out there getting ready for the next show. It was really, really cool.”