Plains students to put on Shakespeare play

Danielle Switalski

Shakespeare simply makes more sense when spoken aloud.  The Plains eighth grade class is slowly starting to learn how much easier it is to speak Shakespeare than it is to read it by putting on a performance of Hamlet as part of their eighth grade English curriculum.

The eighth grade class began performing plays as part of their English class around ten years ago, but have not put on a production in the last four years.  The eighth grade English teacher, Sandy Revier, has decided to reinstate the performance of Hamlet as part of the curriculum this year.  Volunteer director Jan Hatt said the results and enthusiasm from the students thus far have been fairly positive. 

“It goes really well, but the kids have a hard time learning their lines because they put it off, not because they can’t, it’s an unfamiliar language, but they just put it off too long and then they have trouble,” said Hatt. 

The students started their first practice during their English class period on January 4 and have 33 days to memorize their lines before their first dress rehearsal.  There are two separate casts performing Hamlet and the dress rehearsals will be held at the Assembly of God church on January 26 and 28.  Special performances will be held at 6:30 p.m. on January 26 and 28 for family members and the public to come out and watch the play.

“They will only have one practice before they perform on the actual stage and the stage is huge, we’ve been practicing in a room that isn’t even half as big as that stage so its commendable that they can do it,” said Hatt.

Hatt said she has seen a change in some of the students attitudes since they first found out that they had to put on the play.  Some students were less than thrilled with the prospect of memorizing lines and getting on stage to perform a difficult play with a difficult language to master, but she has seen some of them begin to enjoy the lessons and be more enthusiastic about the play. 

“They need to stretch, Hamlet stretches them.  It stretches them in lots of ways, not just actually learning to perform.  Some kids find out sometimes that they really like acting plays and they didn’t know they did before, which is good too,” said Hatt.

Hatt is pleased with the way practices have going so far and is looking forward to the final performance.  The costumes for the play were donated by Mary Lou Hermes from Plains.