Students Serve Up Bites of the Bard for Lunch

Students at Portola Middle School are falling in love with Shakespeare.

Young thespians are serving up a sort of fast-food version of the playwright’s works to their peers in a “Shakespeare at Lunch” program this week.

Members of the audience munch on sandwiches as they watch the actors breeze through classic plays such as “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “King Lear.” The four-day program ends today with a performance of “Antony and Cleopatra.”

“Instead of reading from a book, kids become the characters,” said Paul Richardson, the school’s drama instructor. “They get to use their imaginations and teach the lessons of Shakespeare to their peers. I think that’s the most fascinating part.”

The 28 drama students are using their lunchtime performances as a chance to practice for the Southern California Shakespeare Competition for middle school students Saturday at Valley Middle School in Carlsbad.

In the competition, the students are not allowed to wear costumes or use any props. They are limited to six performers and must complete an entire play in 10 minutes.

“I hope we win because our plays are really good,” said sixth-grader Nicole Ippoliti, 11. “We’ve worked really hard, and I’m glad I did it because I can say that I understand Shakespeare now.”

Other students are understanding Shakespeare a little more, too. Audience members pay 25 cents to get in, and they quickly fill the 125-seat theater.

“When we started talking about Shakespeare for Lunch, I didn’t think anyone would come, because he’s hard to understand,” said Julie Lindeen, a 13-year-old seventh-grader. “But so many people are here, and I love it.”

First, the actors explain the plot and characters of the plays to their audience of sixth- through eighth-graders, then give a 10-minute performance of their selected scripts. The youths act out major scenes and recite some of the classic lines just as Shakespeare wrote them.

“I used to think that Shakespeare was boring and I couldn’t understand it, but now it’s cool,” said seventh-grader Elizabeth Tamen, 13. “It’s more clear to me what Shakespeare meant when he wrote the plays because I learned it’s more about the characters than the words.”