Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Students Glimpse Elizabethan Times

Seventh-graders at Sierra Vista Junior High School on Thursday got a much closer look at William Shakespeare and Sir Francis Drake than they have in their history books.

The famous men from Elizabethan times visited the Canyon Country campus with the help of the Living History Centre, host of the recurring Renaissance Pleasure Faire, currently running in San Bernardino County’s Glen Helen Regional Park.

“They learned a whole lot of bits and pieces about the theater and everyday Elizabethan life,” said Linda Underhill, education director for the Living History Centre.

In the presentation, the center’s Will Wood portrayed Drake, Michael Cawelti took the part of Shakespeare, and Underhill played Mistress Rose, “a common woman.”

Students talked with the performers about clothing, marriage customs, punishment and being knighted by the queen. The conversation also drifted to include the merits and myths of cats.

The group has been making presentations to schools for eight years, instructing at all grade levels.

This was the performers’ second visit to Sierra Vista.

Junior high schools are common for the performances because the Elizabethan period is covered in California’s seventh-grade curriculum, Underhill said.

The 32nd annual Renaissance Pleasure Faire, which re-creates “the merrymaking of old English holidays” in marketplaces, pageants and parades, runs weekends from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. through June 5.

To participate, 1,000 performers study “Elizabethan-as-a-Second-Language,” techniques of improvisation and country dance, song and costume design to transform themselves into residents of an Elizabethan town celebrating May traditions.

Glen Helen Regional Park is located in Devore at the intersections of Interstates 15 and 215. The fair is presented in cooperation with the San Bernardino County Regional Parks Department.