Every year in the cold March morning air, a small troupe of actors, fresh from college, pile out of two vans with their set and costumes at the doors of Oyster River High School (ORHS).
These actors are responsible for the annual Shakespeare performance that is most widely known as an event for the freshman Essentials of English classes at ORHS. The company often tours A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but this year they’re performing Macbeth which means the Essentials classes are being prepared for the performance slightly differently because of the drastic difference in the themes of the two plays. English teacher Corey Blais and her Shakespeare class as well as English teacher Alex Eustace and his Acting II class will also be among the people going to watch the performance, both for different reasons than the Essentials classes.
ORHS English teacher John Monahan has been organizing the event for the last 10 years through Shakespeare and Company, and this is the first time a while they’ve done Macbeth. Monahan said, “it’s going to be an interesting one because its super violent, so it’ll be entertaining. And I’m sure it’ll be toned down. A lot of the violence is off stage anyway, but the whole notion of killing the king so that you can be the king is a real rough one.”
Monahan is having his Essentials of English classes have read portions of Macbeth for the past few weeks to prepare for the performance. They haven’t looked at a plot overview, so the end of the performance will be a total surprise for the students. Jilienne Smith (’28), who is in one of Monahan’s classes says, “It’s cool to see how they did it a long time ago compared to now… I’m looking forward to it.” Monahan plans on skipping to the last act to do with his class after the performance as a finale.
The themes of Macbeth are much different than those of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Shauna Horsley, who also teaches Essentials of English, says that this fact is going to affect how she prepares her class for the performance. She says, “One of the really important themes is that power can corrupt you,” which she explained is more in line with the themes covered in Essentials. No matter the show, Horsley says she usually spends at least one class period talking to students about who Shakespeare is and giving them a plot overview of the play. Because there’s a lot of killing in Macbeth, she tries to be up front with students about what the show might be like.
Emma Smith (‘27), a sophomore and past student of Horsley’s enjoyed last year’s performance. She said that the show is perfect for high schoolers because Shakespeare can be really intimidating. “It’s a way to show this old prestigious work to kids and make it fun.”
The one thing that Horsley says students might get confused by is the difference between the characters. Because such a small group goes on tour, many of them play multiple characters throughout the show. Horsley says, “It can be difficult for students to differentiate between characters because it’s really just costumes [that change].”
While the Essentials classes focus more on the themes of the play, the Acting II class focuses more on the performance aspect. The class is currently reading and performing a Shakespeare play in class. Eustace said, “We do something called a bootleg performance which is our summative where people just kind of put everything together. It’s really haphazard and weird and crazy and fun.” He’s said his reason for taking his class to the performance is that “They’re able to see how someone else is doing it which is really important for us.”
Blais and her Shakespeare class are going to the performance as well. While she only gives her class a brief overview of the play beforehand, she says that much of the curriculum in her class consists of learning about the time period and language that Shakespeare used. Combined with the way the actors perform, she’s confident her class will be able to have a deeper understanding of the play. She says, “I think the actors do a great job of showing what the words mean because if you’re not familiar with the play you might not understand what’s going on.”
She thinks that this kind of experience is so important because, “Shakespeare is meant to be performed.” Horsley echoed what Blais said: “I think that any time you can see a live performance of anything it’s a really enriching experience, especially when you can share that with other people.”
According to Monahan, the typical schedule of the performance goes something like this: early in the morning the actors come in and get themselves set up for a 9:00 start. The show goes to about lunchtime and then they’ll have time for students to ask questions. In addition to the show, there’s sometimes workshops for people in the theater department to partake in.
The class of 2028 will see the show for the first time this year, but for rising upperclassmen interested in attending the annual ORHS Shakespeare performance, class registration is open for the Shakespeare class and Acting I and II classes.
This year, the performance will be in the ORHS auditorium on March 12th at 9:00 am.
-Sadie Goldberg
Image courtesy of Shakespeare and Company
Mouth of the River 
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