The project: write a play with 30 roles, based on Shakespeare, for 30 middle school students by July, 2010.
The idea: A merging of "Othello" and "Much Ado About Nothing" in which Iago takes Don John under his wing to teach him to be evil. Other characters include Desdemona, the ill-fated wife of Othello, the barbed-tongued Beatrice and Benedick, and an all female watch led by the bumbling Dogberry (also a woman) , and many, many others.
As of today I have about 11 pages written - just the very beginning. I'm having the hardest time gaining traction on the project and making any headway. Life is considerably more complicated now than it was six weeks ago, before a tiny person named Clara came into my life to be my puppet-master. My sleep-deprived brain is having trouble concentrating on anything other than her, and the moments that I am able to write are always interrupted, just as I'm gaining some momentum. I'm hoping that as she starts sleeping through the night and taking longer naps during the day, I will be able to focus on Shakespeare for more than ten minutes a day and actually get this play written before I have 30 young actors looking at me with excited anticipation on the first day of rehearsal in July.
The pages I have written so far contain a lot more of Shakespeare's original language than my previous plays. This will be my fourth year doing this type of work, and though I've always taught my students about the language and certainly explored it a great deal, I have not used it to the extent that I may with this one. "Much Ado" strikes me as particularly accessible to young people and perhaps this would be a good year to see how much true Shakespeare they can handle. One of these years, I hope to direct actual Shakespeare - if not at my current theatre of employment, then perhaps at another. Perhaps if I can demonstrate that young actors can in fact understand it and perform it well, then the opportunity may come up sooner rather than later.
The puppet-master is pulling my strings.
About Me
- Rebecca
- Rebecca Salomonsson studied at the National Shakespeare Conservatory in New York and at the University of Massachusetts where she earned a BA in Theatre Arts. While in Boston, she participated in “Shakespeare in Our Schools” – a workshop on teaching Shakespeare led by Shakespeare & Company of Lennox, MA. Most recently, she studied with Janet Suzman of the Royal Shakespeare Company in an acting Shakespeare workshop. Rebecca has been acting for twenty-three years, teaching for twelve, and writing for most of her life. She currently performs, teaches acting and creative writing classes, and directs youth summer drama camps.
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