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Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival Brings Drama to Putnam Valley High School
 | | English teacher Marissa Squicciarini, left, poses backstage with Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival cast and crew members. |
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On March 26th students at Putnam Valley High School (PVHS) received a lively visit from members of the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival (HVSF). English teacher Marissa Squicciarini worked with PTA/PTSA Arts in Education Committee chair (also the House Manager for the PVHS Performing Arts Center) Susi Cummings, with funding from the Putnam Valley High School PTSA, to bring a 50-minute, fully staged version of Romeo and Juliet to the High School's ninth and tenth grade students.
Ms. Squicciarini commented: "This was an amazing opportunity for our students, to have been given the chance to see Shakespeare come to life on stage where all of the components of acting and performing were right in front of them." She added, "In a post-performance class discussion about the experience, many students commented that they were better able to understand the themes and ideas in the play through performance and that it all 'made more sense' after 'seeing' it instead of just reading it.
The students commented on the humor being something they understood and could interpret more easily through performance, as well. They liked the music that was infused into the performance because it was mostly contemporary music that many of them could relate to. I am a firm believer that academics and arts must go hand in hand and are part of an essential, yet integrated approach to learning, especially in a time where our students are so very much a part of a multi-media, technologically advanced culture of communication."
According to the HVSF's website at
www.hvshakespeare.org
this production is "directed with a contemporary twist [that] blows the cobwebs off this commonly studied classic." The presentation included an indepth study guide and a postperformance question and answer period.
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