7th Grade Play - Shakespeare In Love And War

The 7th grade’s presentation touches on many stories from Shakespeare, including pivotal scenes from As You Like It, Othello, The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, Richard II,  and Henry V, in addition to some of his most famous sonnets.  This approach has given the students a wide-ranging taste of Shakespeare, hopefully intriguing them to explore further his rich offerings. It has also highlighted some of the history plays, which are unlikely to be performed in full at Westminster, but which, nevertheless, contain some of Shakespeare’s most stirring speeches.

However, the real story of the program is one of creativity—that organic flowering of the unexpected.  It began with the simple idea of including scenes from different plays, grouped around the themes of love and war.  The need to create narration to introduce and link the scenes led to an inclusion of the personalities and modern sensibilities of the young actors.  Breaking out of the Renaissance (the period in which Shakespeare wrote) opened the door to music and media from much more recent times. With that, the entire enterprise took off in a whole new direction!  So, please, open your minds and hearts to the Bard as you’ve never experienced him, as the Class of 2017 presents Shakespeare in Love and War.