PLACENTIA : Redgrave Shares Shakespearean Tips

Until this week, Julie Remala had seen actress Lynn Redgrave only in commercials for a chain of weight-loss centers and a short-lived situation comedy.

But on Thursday, the El Dorado High School senior was introduced to another facet of Redgrave’s career when the actress delivered the famous soliloquy from “Hamlet” at the end of a workshop she conducted for 115 local high school students.

The students, all from Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District high schools, thought they were going to Beverly Hills to see a performance of Redgrave’s one-woman show, “Shakespeare for My Father” at the Canon Theater.

Instead, they were treated to a three-hour workshop. Each student picked a scene from one of Shakespeare’s plays to perform for Redgrave, who critiqued their performance.

Remala and Tom McMahon, also a senior at El Dorado, performed a scene from “Taming of the Shrew.”

“It was wonderful because she actually coached us through it,” McMahon said after the workshop. “The whole experience was incredible.”

As excited as she was about the workshop, Remala said she was disappointed not to see Redgrave’s show.

“I really wanted to see her act, so I asked her at the end if she would so something for us,” Remala said. “It was incredible because one minute she was just talking and the next minute she was doing, ‘To be or not to be.’ ”

The three-hour field trip was arranged by Pauline Ferris, director of educational services, to call attention to the district’s Education Foundation and its efforts to raise money for performing arts programs in the schools.