The Garden Bard

Consider this: there is no culture on the globe that does not have stories. They are part of our history and essential to human beings. I have read about aboriginal tribes in Australia who use songs and stories in case they get lost. These songs contain information like a map, so if you know the words to a particular song, you can, for instance, find water in an unfamiliar area because you know the song for that area.

Good plays function much the same way – as a sort of map of the soul or the human experience. We see the beautiful truths and absurdities of our joys and triumphs, our mistakes, flaws, and limitations played out before us as if to remind us that we are all trying to find our way home.

I started Doorways: Creating Theatre for Children in 2000 based on my desire to give students the means and confidence to tell their own stories and see their imaginations come to life. These workshops for grade school students have used poetry, pictures that they have taken or drawn, writing exercises and personal stories to create a piece of theatre that they then perform for their families and friends. High school students draw on their own life experiences and learn tools in order to translate Shakespeare’s words and express them as their own.

Included in tuition is a ticket to Door Shakespeare so that the students can see one of history’s greatest storytellers and literary “map makers” in action. One of my greatest joys over the years has been the night the Doorway’s students come to see a performance in the garden. Making their own first row seated on blankets, their faces mesmerized and engaged, the intimate nature of the garden and staging always invites them into the story.

The summer Door Shakespeare produced Romeo and Juliet, the Doorway’s students attended a Friday evening performance. The carpool ride home after the show became very intense as three nine-year-olds debated whether or not the Friar would’ve really poisoned Juliet and why she even thought that the sleep elixir would be poison. One girl was even a little incredulous that Juliet would question the integrity of her trusted friend. It is a true gift to know that classical language is falling on open and understanding ears, that the maps of trust and loyalty, good versus evil, and friend versus foe are able to be followed in the 3rd grade via Shakespearean verse.

My favorite thing about watching children play is that they don’t lie. They dive in, they believe, they say “yes…and now what? And now what? And now what?”

I have been humbled and overjoyed over the years with the stories the Doorways students have imagined. A walk outside the Fish Creek Town Hall inspired a story about a pirate ship buried in the harbor waters. A picture of a stone fence became the beginning image for a story about ghosts and guardian angels in a cemetery. The desire to get along with one another spurred the story of “Sheila the Superhero,” a best friend who was able to observe everyone’s greatest strengths and put them to use in order to help save an ailing farmer. Naturally, the kid’s imaginations gravitate towards the larger than life, the mysterious territories of ghosts, and angels and the cycles of life.

Children’s writing always reflects a desire to answer their questions. Rarely do they write about what they know, but more often, what they desire to understand. Computers, television, and gaming provide an enormous resource for children to walk around the creativity of others – the worlds and lands and characters have already been created for the consumer to explore. I hope that Doorways encourages students to look inside the limitlessness of their own imaginations, to ask questions, explore their own uniqueness and creativity to find the infinite possibilities of stories yet to be created…the maps of their own souls.

Doorways is proudly funded in part by a grant from the Peninsula Arts Association and the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and runs July 24 – 26 (and also August 14 – 16) from 10 am – 12:30 pm at the Stella Maris Parish in Egg Harbor. Students will be split into two groups: 1st through 4th grade and 5th through 8th grade. The high school session will run on the same dates from 1 – 3:30 pm and will focus on an introduction to Shakespeare’s language. For those in college or older, Door Shakespeare is pleased to announce an adult acting class that will take place every Tuesday evening running through August 19 from 7 – 9 pm at Björklunden in Bailey’s Harbor. Please contact the Door Shakespeare office with questions or to register for all classes: 920.839.1500 or http://www.doorshakespeare.com.

"The Garden Bard" is a rotating column written by various members of the Door Shakespeare company, including actors, musicians, and directors. Each column reflects on a different aspect of Door Shakespeare’s 2008 season, featuring A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Cyrano de Bergerac.