SEARCH Chills with Will
Sixth graders in the Huntington School District's SEARCH program culminated a half-year unit on Shakespeare by participating in a 90-minute workshop last Friday.
The youngsters worked in two groups with guest instructors Heather Thorgersen and Tom Slot, reviewing Shakespeare's late 16th century comedy, "The Taming of the Shrew," and learning how to stage a mock fight scene and make it look like the real thing.
Students had recently completed reading through the play and they thoroughly reviewed it with Ms. Thorgersen. "She had each group of four create a tableau representing a particular scene from the comedy," said Maryann Daly, SEARCH program chairperson-teacher. "The audience then had to determine which scene had been acted out, using their movements, body language and facial expressions."
The workshop has been customized to include stage fight choreography and fencing techniques used by professional actors during combat scenes. "Heather had each child take an oath and promise that they would not repeat the actions learned in a negative way on the playground, around school or by practicing these techniques on their younger siblings," Mrs. Daly said.
The two guest instructors demonstrated the art of stage fight combat and the tricks that actors must learn to make a confrontation look real. Exercises in hair-pull techniques, the acting out of the punch and slap (where the "victim" creates a realistic sound by clapping their cupped hands together with a technique called the "snap") and vocally making a sound, left many students impressed.
"Safety was continually stressed," Mrs. Daly said. Scenes that included "fights" led to students being kept far enough apart and totally in sync with one another before they were permitted to act.
"By the time this session was over, all the children learned these cool tricks, practiced them with a partner and then were part of a choreographed story in order to demonstrate to their audience the techniques learned," Mrs. Daly said.
The two groups were also taught the fencing techniques used by actors in a Shakespearean combat scene. "The skills used in the advance stage and the retreat stage were definitely different from one another and the physicality of the moves they practiced during the fencing lessons were tough on the knees, to say the very least," Mrs. Daly said.
The workshop played out in the new modular classroom unit that was recently installed at Woodhull School. "All in all, the children came away from this workshop knowing how professionals carefully learn to stage fight scenes used in many plays, especially Shakespeare's," Mrs. Daly said.