Greta Owens, MS ITL
As we enter this time of the school year, there is a sense of excitement and anticipation.There is an event that comes every year, at the just the right time: the reading of the Shakespeare plays, the announcing of much awaited parts, blocking the scripts and all the work put toward the dramatic effects. But, it’s so much more than that! For us, this season of Shakespeare is a lift in the spirits, unified community, and a memory maker in the waiting! It’s more than just “playing at Shakespeare.”
Shakespeare days at Ambleside are a lift in the spirits. Shakespeare is an integral part of the curriculum at all Ambleside schools. As I think back to the many years that I directed a play, I remember them with a two-fold sense of “I am gonna die” and “these are the best moments of my life”….(somewhat similar to raising teenagers). It begins at just the right time of the school year. As we return from Spring Break and the students are squirmy and restless, we get to embark on something new and fresh. You can feel the excitement in each classroom. You can see the renewed glimmer of anticipation. In the hallways, you can hear sonnets being memorized and recited. A short way down that hall you can hear students, unified and loud, practicing their line, “YOU ARE QUOTING SHAKESPEARE” at the top of their sweet lungs. Downstairs, you may walk into a middle school classroom and witness a sword fight breaking out only to walk outside and see another middle school class blocking their script and witnessing a student “fake” fainting. Across the street at the Lively House, you see the little ones working on the maypole dance and practicing their sword fights. Part of the anticipation is the rite of passage our Shakespeare season brings with it. Each grade level is responsible for a specific piece of the whole and every year the students eagerly take that on, with pride. It’s more than just “playing at Shakespeare.”
Shakespeare days at Ambleside are a lift in the community. Who knew William Shakespeare would bring so many people together, not only in the 16th century but also in a little school in Ocala, FL, in the 21st century? Our community of moms, dads, uncles, aunts, and grandparents gather to not only come to watch their students perform, but they are caught so many times helping with all the preparations. The camaraderie of gathering costumes, sewing last minute costume details, practicing lines with their students are all little but BIG ways that our Shakespeare time brings our community together. Our Shakespeare days bring this sense of belonging with a common goal and it bonds us. It’s more than just “playing at Shakespeare.”
Shakespeare days at Ambleside are a memory maker. The memories made from our Shakespeare days are not easily forgotten and often met with MUCH laughter. How easily would YOU forget your teacher directing you and trying to show you how to accurately stab the enemy with a knife by demonstrating it ON you (fake one, of course)? Probably etched really well in that memory tank! The nostalgia a middle or high schooler feels as they see all the younger students performing and doing the same things they once did brings back the sweet memories of what makes our school unique. It’s more than just “playing at Shakespeare.”
There are times we don’t know what a great thing we have until we don’t have it. Isn’t that true for many things? That was the case this time last year when we were all stuck at home and unable to do this thing we love so much. Will you join us in not taking it for granted THIS year? And in the words of Shakespeare himself, “With mirth and laughter, let old wrinkles come. All’s well that ends well.” Let us end this school year with all love and laughter, even adding on some new wrinkles because of it! It’s more than just “playing at Shakespeare!”