Actors Play Up the Fun Side of Shakespeare
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It wasn’t a matter of “To be or not to be.” Instead it was a question of whether to laugh or not to laugh as a band of actors tried to teach Gardena High School students Friday that Shakespeare, believe it or not, can be fun.
The Shakespeare and Friends Foundation, started in 1992 by actress Dee Marie Nieto, took to the auditorium stage and delighted students with their antics from three Shakespearean comedies: “The Taming of the Shrew,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “A Comedy of Errors.”
Each comedy carried a moral. In “A Comedy of Errors,” it was that not everything is what it seems to be. In “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” it was that romantic pursuits are useless unless the other party is interested.
“I truly believe anyone can understand Shakespeare. It is just how you approach it,” said Nieto, whose nonprofit group tours schools to teach children about the classics and Shakespeare.
The students howled when they saw one actor gussied up as Juliet from Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.” It was a lesson that during Elizabethan times, only men were allowed to act on the stage.
“It was a good experience to watch,” said 15-year-old student Darling Rocha.
“It was pretty cool,” Mitchell Sephus, 14, admitted.
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