CPS students take to stage to perform 'Hamlet'

'The plots are so sick, they're so dramatic'
CPS students take to stage to perform 'Hamlet'
Chicago Sun-Times
October 20, 2006
By KATE N. GROSSMAN
A mere three weeks ago, 21 teens and nine of their teachers, several from Chicago's poorest high schools, began an odyssey that culminates today on Navy Pier, at the world-class Chicago Shakespeare Theater.
For 21 days, they've done nothing but "Hamlet." Guided by a group of CST actors and staff, the group rehearsed six days a week, memorized lines in bed at home nightly and ran lines during breaks at school.
Many arrived without acting experience, with little love for Shakespeare. Many go to schools that can't afford drama programs.
Today, the students take to the stage transformed. CPS Hamlet -- a first-of-its kind collaboration between CST and the Chicago Public Schools -- premieres.
"I have a sort of dignity about myself that I didn't have before," said Alycia Jenkins, a sophomore at Manley Career Academy on the West Side. "My school has a very, very bad reputation ... But just because you go to Manley doesn't mean you're not talented. We're proving people wrong."
At a dress rehearsal Wednesday, on the same regal courtyard stage where professional actors perform "Hamlet'' nightly, Hamlet's agony and Ophelia's despair reverberated, transporting the audience into Shakespeare's world of betrayal and revenge.
"I used to think Shakespeare was for wussies," said Samuel Vega, a junior at Clemente High in Ukrainian Village. "Now I think he's pretty cool. The plots are so sick, they're so dramatic."
Teachers forgot lines
The English teachers worked alongside students as actors, exposing a more human side -- they forgot their lines, cracked jokes and, their students learned, don't actually live at school.
Each of the teachers -- who work at schools across Chicago -- took a course at the theater before Hamlet, learning to use theater techniques, such as visualization and close text work, to help struggling readers.
CPS Hamlet premieres today at 4:30 p.m. and Saturday at 11:00 a.m.