Students in grades 6-8 provided a memorable morning of entertainment at last Friday’s Middle School Shakespeare Festival. For the second straight year, the event was held in two locations – the amphitheater and the Berry Performing Arts Center.
The day began with sixth graders reciting 15 of the 154 sonnets written by Shakespeare. Sanaya Joshi ’30 provided the introduction and her classmates followed with recitations in the amphitheater. Seventh graders in Ms. Bess Gildersleeve’s classes followed by reciting a series of monologues and soliloquies. Josh Culver ’29 began this segment with an introduction.
After a short break, the action moved indoors to the PAC where the eighth graders in Ms. Dorri Ramati’s English classes delighted the audience with their performance of Julius Caesar. Leading players included Shiloh Shama ’28, Britton Gehl ’28, Diya Kothari ’28, Shweta Saravanan ’28 and Ellie Szczubelek ’28. The rest of the class assisted with production: Madalyn Cortese ’28, Julia Marin ’28, Devin Virdi ’28, and Anna Zhang ’28 served as student directors, working to direct staging and oversee the production. Evan Moreira ’28 took the lead as production manager, running the lighting and sound boards in the PAC. Other students spent time designing sets, creating props, and organizing costumes in addition to taking roles in the onstage ensemble.
Congratulations to the students and their teachers for their collaboration and efforts to continue the Shakespeare tradition at W+H!