WORKSHOPS have put the play back into Shakespeare for Batemans Bay High School students and at least one drama teacher this week.
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Bell Shakespeare Company teacher Kerreen Ely-Harper spent three days at the school this week, preparing drama, circus, art and industrial art students for a performance of Macbeth in Canberra in November.
On Wednesday, she asked a group of year 10 drama students to jump quickly from character to character, while moving around the room to the beat of her drum.
One minute males and females were all Lady Macbeth, the next a witch or a king.
Getting students up and moving in character brought the text to life, drama teacher Sharon McCutcheon said.
“It is a fantastic opportunity for kids at a rural school,” she said.
“We don’t get access to these resources often.”
She said the best thing was “watching the kids have fun with Shakespeare”.
“Sometimes kids hear that word and seize up,” she said.
“They think it is not going to be fun, but here in the workshop they are laughing and jumping and enjoying it.
“It has brought it to life.”
She said the play “was not a book”.
“You have to get up and do it,” she said.
Ms McCutcheon said the intense three days had been great for staff too.
“I have learnt so much too,” she said.
“I am having a professional development overload.”
Ms Ely-Harper’s visit is part of a pilot program, which chose six schools to be involved in a Shakespeare festival in Canberra on November 6.
“We are performing a section of Macbeth under the watchful eye of the Bell Shakespeare Company,” she said.
Ms McCutcheon said the drama workshops would also help students in their exams.
“When you physically connect to a text, it helps you remember things,” she said.
“In an exam you can recall the information, the characters, their relationships.”
Circus student Todd Lavis said the workshops had helped him understand the play.
“I have watched the movie and read the book, but you get a lot more out of it by playing it out yourself,” Todd said.