Program brings Shakespeare to elementary school students

Fourth-graders at Muldown Elementary School received an unconventional education earlier this month.

Their vocabulary lesson included the words “capon” (chicken), “thee” and “thou.” They learned how to avoid injuring one another while sword fighting. And they learned how to make a fake slap look realistic.

Their lessons were courtesy of Montana Shakes!, an outreach program offered by Montana Shakespeare in the Parks. Each spring, a small troupe tours Montana and Wyoming schools to introduce students to the works of William Shakespeare. The program was in Whitefish May 8 and at Kila School May 9.

Montana Shakespeare in the Parks has been bringing the bard to students for nearly 20 years through its Shakespeare in the Schools program. Montana Shakes!, which is designed specifically for younger students, was launched in 2008.

This year, company manager Mark Kuntz, Tonya Andrews and Michael Gonring visited 45 schools in nine weeks, performing “All the West’s a Stage: Good Night, Sweet Prince, Great King,” a 35-minute play featuring scenes from “Henry IV, Part I.”

Rather than bombard students with an entire play — especially one featuring historical characters with whom students are likely unfamiliar — the actors presented a play within a play. Kuntz, Andrews and Gonring played members of a traveling Old West show who just happened to perform Shakespearean plays.

Gonring’s character was clueless about Shakespeare’s language, giving the actors an opportunity to explain some of the words and phrases that can trip up modern ears. When Andrews, in Old West character, introduced the play using Shakespearean language, Gonring turned to the audience and asked, confused, “What in tarnation is she talking about?”

In addition to explaining tricky and archaic phrases, the troupe engaged students by getting them on stage. As Gonring explained, “The best way to experience the plays is to see them performed, not just read them.”

Even better than sitting passively in the audience? Helping the actors bring scenes to life.

Chloe Kasselder and Tully Delgado donned dark cloaks and sun and moon headgear, respectively, as Gonring and Kuntz, as Prince Hal and Falstaff, waxed poetic about day and night. Caroline Dye helped Andrews hide Gonring’s face behind clouds as he delivered a monologue about how Prince Hal was, in a sense, hiding his true glory from the world.

In case the audience had missed the point, whether they were distracted by their classmate’s performance or lost in the language, Gonring reverted to his Old West character.

“It’s a simile!” he told Dye, who looked confused.

“Um, OK,” she said.

“I’m saying I’m like the sun on a cloudy day,” Gonring explained, making Dye and the rest of the fourth-graders giggle.

Students were involved throughout the show. Some played highway robbers. Rally Belcher shook his fist and stamped his feet as Prince Hal’s irritated father, Henry IV. Kaiah Moore hammed it up as a “popinjay” who irked hot-headed Hotspur.

Hands shot up whenever the actors called for volunteers, and those who weren’t called were disappointed.

“Crud,” one frustrated student muttered.

“I said you’re awesome, though,” another protested.

But everyone got a chance to participate after the play, when the actors taught stage-fighting workshops. The troupe also offers sessions in Shakespearean verse and character and movement, Kuntz said, but Muldown teachers requested three stage-fighting workshops.

Gonring led one session for the students in Shelly Snipes’ class. After laying down his No. 1 rule — safety — he divided the kids into pairs and allowed them to practice pretending to slap one another. A loud, hidden clap and exaggerated movements were critical to the slap’s believability, he told them.

The class enthusiastically embraced the exercise, sometimes getting so caught up in their hyperbolic movements and outraged faces that they forgot to clap. A passing teacher watched the action and predicted Muldown would see many fake fights on the playground that day.

Once the students had slapping down, Gonring taught them how to sword-fight using foam pool noodles. To help the fourth-graders stay focused, he made them an offer before passing out the props.

“If you pretend they’re real metal swords, at the end I’ll let you beat me up with noodles,” he told them.

It seemed like a good deal to the students, who paid close attention during the remainder of the workshop. They learned how to attack, how to block attacks and how to “counter” — to circle each other to build the fight’s tension and help tell the story.

Once the workshop was over, the class surrounded Gonring in a gesture that would have been menacing if the students hadn’t been giggling uncontrollably. Gonring gave the signal, and the kids proceeded to whack the actor with their pool noodles as he writhed on the floor and yelled.

Montana Shakes! also included an opportunity for students to question the actors.

The fourth-graders wanted to know whether Gonring had hurt himself when he had pretended to hit his head on a hanging sign; they were impressed when he demonstrated how he’d pulled off the stunt.

Another student knew women weren’t allowed to act during Shakespeare’s time.

“Shouldn’t you be a boy?” she asked Andrews.

Kuntz wrapped up the show by asking the students if they liked Shakespeare.

“Yes!” they shouted.

Kristi Albertson, editor of This Week in the Flathead, may be reached at 758-4438 or at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.