In their first Shakespeare Festival since before the pandemic shutdown, students and staff at the Meadowbrook Alternative Program took a three-prong approach to this week-long production. 

“One-third of the performances were live, and two-thirds were filmed in front of our green-screen wall and then edited in Canva and iMovie,” explained Laura Sheridan, an English teacher and festival organizer at MAP. “Canva has been a game changer regarding what can be done with the videos.” 

In English classes during the third quarter, all students read a Shakespeare play: E1: Romeo and Juliet; E2: Twelfth Night; E3, AP4: Othello; and E4: Macbeth 

“This way, all students were familiar with at least some of the material in the festival,” Sheridan noted. “Our students spend much time on their feet, in costumes, performing in the classroom.” 

This year, Sheridan’s Theater Arts class served integral roles in stage crew, prop making, and scene suggestion for all five of the live performances. 

“Having a scene from Henry VIII was driven by a student who is fascinated with Anne Boleyn and wanted to play her as an actress,” explained Sheridan.  
Then, my stage crew suggested using a TikTok approach for the prologue and epilogue for that scene, which required much historical information. 

This enabled production to fit many more students on film, even to say one line.  

“When I explained to my Theater Arts class that the story of Romeo & Juliet takes roughly three days, they came up with the idea to create a newscast that traced the story in a quick timeline,” she added. 

This year Sheridan fulfilled a goal that she’s had for 20 years: to have an actual brother and sister play the twins Sebastian and Viola from Twelfth Night.  

“That's what was great all around this year: students and staff were so willing to step in and perform,” she noted. “Even shy students agreed to read one line.” 

This year was also the first year that students and staff from the district’s Prep Academy program staff also participated. 

“At the end of the day, I aim for my students to feel both ownership of Shakespeare's works and the excitement of seeing themselves and the members of their school family performing and having fun with it,” added Sheridan.