12A • November 27, 2015 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com
Students learn the art of performing Shakespeare
+LJKVFKRROEHQH¿WVIURPIRXU\HDUSDUWQHUVKLSZLWK2UHJRQ6KDNHVSHDUH)HVWLYDO
Organization provides instruction, opportunity for
students to attend Shakespeare festival in Ashland
By Katherine Lacaze
Seaside Signal
Oregon Shakespeare Fes-
tival actors brought the words
of the famous Bard of Avon to
life for Seaside High School
students through interactive
workshops and theatrical per-
formances as part of a four-
year educational partnership.
Kristin
Hammargren
and David Huynh, Oregon
Shakespeare Festival actors
and teachings artists, visited
the school Nov. 9 and 10.
During the ¿rst morning
of their residency, they put
on a literature program for
the entire student body. The
program, Know Thyself,” in-
cluded performances of vari-
ous scenes from “The Servant
of Two Masters,” by Carlo
Goldoni; a scene from sea-
son one of “Upstairs Down-
stairs”; the balcony scene
from “Romeo and Juliet,” by
William Shakespeare; and
“Trying to Find Chinatown,”
by David Henry Hwang.
The following day, the
actors twice performed a
condensed version of Shake-
speare’s “Hamlet,” using
simple props and both taking
numerous roles. The two days
also were ¿lled with work-
shops, attended by various
classes and students, primar-
ily from the English depart-
ment.
Along with a recent trip to
the Oregon Shakespeare Fes-
tival in Ashland, the visit from
Hammargren and Huynh
served as a ¿nale of Seaside
High School’s involvement in
the organization’s School Vis-
it Partnership Program that
started in 2012. The program
concludes this year.
“This is an invaluable
partnership,” Seaside En-
glish teacher Susan Baertlein
said. Without it, she added,
students and teachers alike
would not have had access to
the caliber of expensive train-
ing and instruction offered by
the Oregon Shakespeare Fes-
tival and its actors.
School visit
program
The festival implement-
ed the School Visit Program
in 1971 and teams of actors
have traveled to thousands of
schools in 12 western states
to help students and teach-
ers engage pieces from the
Shakespeare cannon and oth-
er classical and contemporary
literature. The organization
partners with 12 schools from
Oregon for three-year periods
for a partnership program that
provides teachers with pro-
fessional development and
classroom lessons that link
to two- to ¿ve-day actor res-
idency programs at partner-
ship schools.
Baertlein was introduced
to the Oregon Shakespeare
Festival during her time as
a teacher at Douglas McK-
ay High School in Salem.
When she came to Seaside,
she applied for the high
school to become a partner-
ship school with the orga-
nization. Schools that meet
certain criteria — such as
racial diversity, accessibility
to the arts and a percentage of
students receiving free or re-
duced lunch — get accepted
for new openings. Addition-
ally, teachers who write pas-
sionate essays requesting the
program at their school “are
a key piece,” because teach-
ers need to organize each as-
pect of the partnership, said
Katherine Gosnell, outreach
programs manager for the
Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
Receiving support,
resources
The partnership has four
parts, Baertlein said. First,
two Seaside teachers were in-
vited to Ashland for a week of
R.J. MARX PHOTO/SEASIDE SIGNAL
R.J. MARX/SEASIDE SIGNAL
Kristin Hammargren offers techniques for performing Shakespeare at Seaside
High School.
Stretching and movement exercises give stu-
dents the tools for performing classical theater.
training, called Shakespeare
in the Classroom, in the
summer of 2013. Each year,
English and language arts
teachers also attended work-
shops with the organization’s
education staff and received
curriculum materials, exercis-
es and other resources.
Each year, a different team
of actors came to Seaside
High School for two days, per-
forming literature or Shake-
speare programs and teaching
workshops for students. The
workshops and performanc-
es changed each year. The
high school paid about 10
percent of the estimated cost
of the program, and most of
the funding was grants from
the school’s Booster Club,
Baertlein said. Each year,
she tried to match up the
workshops and performanc-
es with the school’s schedule
“so the most kids could take
advantage of them,” she said.
During the actors’ most re-
cent visit, Baertlein estimated
about 150 students saw both
performances and about 150
to 200 attended at least one
workshop.
Although drama plays a
part in the School Visit Part-
nership Program curriculum,
the program is centered on
using kinesthetic learning to
explore and understand text
and comprehend language,
literary devices and themes,
Gosnell said.
“If you take some time to
talk out loud and do physical
activity it’s like ‘Oh! I get
this speech now!’” she said.
“The arts integration is going
to happen because we have
actors who are performing,
but our main goal is support
teachers who are teaching En-
glish.”
Baertlein agreed, describ-
ing the learning process as
“looking at the plays with
close readings from a theater
perspective.”
Visiting Ashland
Lastly, through the part-
nership, the organization
sponsored a trip to the Or-
egon Shakespeare Festival
for about 30 students, from
eighth through 12th grade,
and six chaperons. During the
trip, Oct. 23 and 24, the stu-
dents watched performances
of “Pericles, Prince of Tyre,”
by Shakespeare, and “Guys
and Dolls.”
Because the theater where
Pericles was performed is
smaller and more intimate,
junior Nolan Milliren and
senior Chloe Kincaid said
they liked viewing that play
better.
“It was more enjoyable
and more fun to watch,” Kin-
caid said. “You could feel the
emotion radiating off the ac-
tors in ‘Pericles.’”
It was clear the actors ded-
icated a lot of thought, prepa-
ration and passion to pull off
their characters, the students
said.
In Ashland, the high-
schoolers also attended a
workshop focused on the
hero’s journey, a theme com-
monly found in literature that
includes a protagonist, a men-
tor or guide and overcoming
obstacles.
To demonstrate the theme,
the group did exercises
during the workshop, Milli-
ren said. One exercise split
the students into teams; one
student would lead his or her
blindfolded teammate around
shoes spread out on the Àoor
to represent obstacles.
The exercise helped the
students understand the he-
18TH ANNUAL
Providence Seaside Hospital Foundation invites you to be
GD]]OHGDQGGHOLJKWHGWKLVKROLGD\VHDVRQ
SATURDAY, DEC. 5
COMMUNITY OPEN HOUSE
FEATURING SANTA CLAUS
10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Free admission
G Beautiful Christmas trees
G Kids’crafts G Cookie decorating
GALA DINNER AND AUCTION
Doors open at 5:30 p.m.
Tickets: $100 per guest;
$1,000 for table of 10
Entertainment by Acústica World Music
SEASIDE CIVIC AND CONVENTION CENTER
415 FIRST AVE., SEASIDE, OR 97138
For reservations or more information, please call 503-717-7601 or visit www.ProvidenceFestivalOfTrees.org/Seaside.
4VSGIIHWFIRI½X
TVSKVEQWERHWIVZMGIW
WYTTSVXIHF]
ro’s journey from the per-
spective of the hero, Milliren
and Kincaid said. When you
are watching a performance
or reading a book, it is easy
as an outsider think you know
where the story’s “hero”
should be going, but “when
you’re in the position where
you can’t see where you’re
supposed to go, it makes it a
lot different,” Milliren said.
For a lot of students, the
trip was an experience they
might not have otherwise, or
not until later in life, Baertlein
said.
Milliren agreed to trip was
a special opportunity for him.
“Personally, that’s farthest
I’ve ever been from Seaside,”
he said.
Now that Seaside High
School has ¿nished its part-
nership program, it has access
to a reduced rate to bring back
a team of actors to the school
next year. Baertlein said she’s
“optimistic we should be able
to do it next year,” but she is
unsure how long it will be ¿-
nancially feasible.
“We are hoping to main-
tain our connection with Sea-
side High School,” Gosnell
said.