The Play’s the Thing
If you want to get out of the heat Saturday afternoon, may I suggest seeing “Romeo and Juliet” at 3 p.m. the LGISD Performing Arts Center, a show put on by the Camp Shakespeare kids If you want to embrace the heat, may I recommend seeing Sunday’s 2 p.m, performance at the Winedale Theater Barn. Take note: They do have some A/C and fans set up but the historic barn is open on the outside.
For those of you unfamiliar with Camp Shakespeare, it’s been going on for 23 years, and was created by local legend James ‘Doc’Ayres, who started the Shakespeare at Winedale collegiate summer course more than 50 years ago. By contrast, Camp Shakespeare is for young kids, ages 11-17. This year’s group includes campers from as far away as Rome and New York.
It also includes one local kid.
I must confess a conflict of interest in recommending the show.
Our 13-year-old son Deacon plays Romeo’s witty buddy Mercutio in the performance.
He and the other campers have been living and working on the play near Round Top for the past two weeks. I can’t tell you much more about that, because our communication with Deacon has been limited to a few short afternoon phones calls on a borrowed director’s phone and the occasional old-fashioned handwritten letter.
The camp is completely screen-free, which in this day and age is rather refreshing – but a little challenging for curious parents a little worried about their teen in a new environment.
I stand in awe of all these kiddos, who give up two weeks of their summer to go an adventure like this – complete with an amazing amount of hard work.
Our son has about 200 lines of Shakespearean English dialogue to memorize – hardly something you can improvise your way through.
The kids who play Romeo and Juliet have way more.
I can’t even remember a grocery list of half-a-dozen things when I go to HEB.
Deacon did tell us he’s learned all lot about sword fighting for some of his role in the play and they’ve progressed from wooden sticks to actual swords.
Spoiler alert: He does die in a sword fight in the play.
Doc Ayres is still an integral part of the instruction at camp, but so are several other gifted theater pros, including Director Robin Grace Soto.
After Deacon went off to camp, my wife and I watched this amazing documentary that made the rounds at independent film festivals last year and was also shown on Austin PBS. It’s called “Take Pains. Be Perfect” and the film talks a lot about the history of early Shakespeare at Winedale through the lens of a more recent Camp Shakespeare season.
The synopsis summarizes the documentary in this way: “In an historic Texas barn, in the heat of midsummer, a visionary English professor has been teaching Shakespeare through performance for half a century. His program has inspired generations of students and has profoundly influenced their lives in unexpected ways.”
Ayres and Soto both feature prominently in the touching documentary that made my wife cry at least three times. You can find it online. Go to PBS.org and search for the title.
The documentary really focuses on the power of live theater and the comaraderie that can be created through play.
In the documentary, one of the most famous Shakespeare at Winedale alums, Michael Barker, the Co-Founder and Co-President of Sony Picture Classics (his films have won 25 Oscars), is interviewed and, in addition to some humours anecdotes from his time in Winedale, he says, “When you have the facility to understand Shakespeare and deliver Shakespearean words and perform, it gives you power, it empowers you with the feeling that you can take on almost anything.”
Tickets Saturday and Sunday are $10. Kids 12-under are free. You can pay at the door.
If you can’t make it to this weekend’s performances consider going to the collegiate Shakespeare at Winedale plays July 21-August 13. They are doing “Hamlet, As You Like It, and Cymbeline.”
Or if Shakespeare is going back too far for you, the La Grange Community Theatre kids are doing a 1980s tribute comedy called “Back to the 80s” Aug. 4-6. Watch the newspaper for more on all of those upcoming performances.
Hope I run into you at one of the shows.