For some high school english students, Shakespeare brings nothing but headaches and long nights spent pouring over the notoriously difficult language.
But not in Wapakoneta. Or at least not this week.
In a partnership that has now lasted over a decade, Wapakoneta High School english teacher Linda Temple and Great Lakes Theater in Cleveland joined forces to add a dimension that helps bring the student's study of Macbeth to life.
Literally.
After reading and analyzing the 17th century text in class, students set up shop in the Performing Arts Center with the theater's traveling educators Leah Smith and Adam Graber for a week-long residency. Over the course of the visit, the students spent time discussing the play, running through acting exercises, and participating in live performances with the professionals.
For Temple, the activities give the students an angle that she just can't get with a textbook. "Obviously the purpose of a play is to be seen, and so that's difficult to do in the classroom," Temple said, grading papers at her temporary desk next to the stage. "This is where they put it on its legs and show kids what theater is really supposed to be like, what the play is really supposed to mean. It just takes it to another level."
Smith and Graber, she said, add a perspective that is unique to their profession.
"They enrich what I'm able to do in the classroom," Temple said, "by bringing their...
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