Conejo Students Lend Their Ears to Bard’s Works

It’s not every day that fifth-graders shout “thou,” “thee” or “beseech” during class, but at Westlake Elementary School the subject was William Shakespeare and his plays.

Professional actors Kevin Moran and Anne Patrichio asked about the playwright’s distinctive language last week as part of a workshop for kindergarten through fifth-grade students who were studying Elizabethan England as part of the Shakespeare Educational Tour.

For the third year, Kingsmen Shakespeare Company and the Thousand Oaks Arts Commission have brought the Bard’s works into the classrooms of the Conejo Valley Unified School District.

During this three-week tour, Moran, Patrichio and four other thespians are spending their mornings at 16 elementary schools giving 20- to 45-minute workshops in classrooms.

Students learn about the history of Shakespeare and perform scenes from his plays. After lunch, the actors perform an original play featuring scenes from various works of Shakespeare for an assembly of third- through fifth-graders. The children get involved by performing sound effects, such as a woman crying or the din of thunder and lightning.

“The students love it,” said fifth-grade teacher Sue Boyce. “It’s not that they become experts on Shakespeare, but it exposes them to him.”

One goal of the tour, which ends Tuesday, is to make Shakespeare less intimidating by studying the author before students develop preconceived notions about how difficult it is to understand his writing.

“This is the time to do it because kids this age don’t have any inhibitions,” said Michael Arndt, co-founder and artistic director of the Kingsmen Shakespeare Company.

Eleven-year-old Caitlyn Christensen said the workshop made her want to study more of the Bard’s plays.

“I really liked learning about the language he used,” said Caitlyn, who played the parts of Viola and Cesario in scenes from “Twelfth Night.”

Justin Rosenberg, 11, added that he enjoyed learning about the different themes of love, comedy and drama.

The educational tour was the brainchild of Arndt; associate artistic director Lane Davies, the company’s other founder; and Thousand Oaks Arts Commission member Patrick McMinn.

Based on the community’s growing interest in the theater troupe’s annual performances at California Lutheran University and the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, the trio devised the educational tour as a way to bring the Bard’s works to another audience.

“Usually it’s the art programs that are the first to be cut from schools because they are considered frills. With this program it is integrated into the regular curriculum,” McMinn said. “The great thing about this program is that there are a number of disciplines to come out of it, like poetry, history and literature.”

To prepare for the workshop and assembly, students studied Shakespeare several weeks before the tour reached their school.

Arndt said district schools are asked in September whether they want to participate. The cost is $1,000 per school, with the Thousand Oaks Art Commission and Kingsmen Shakespeare Company each contributing $6,000 to cover the production costs.

Though the program is only offered to Conejo Valley Unified schools, Arndt and McMinn want to expand it to other districts.

“We have a very unique situation here,” said Arndt, who has taught drama at Cal Lutheran for 20 years. “In England it’s the norm to study Shakespeare from a young age. We hope this program will instill that same interest.”