By Frances Vanderploeg

Mon, Oct 6, 2008 (midnight)

Hyun James Kim / Special to the Home News

Performing the part of Romeo, eighth-grader Orlando Santos, center, reads from the script of “Romeo and Juliet” at Lyal Burkholder Junior High School.

After watching actors perform Shakespeare live and demonstrate sword fights Monday, Devin Skougard, 13, was ready to try a little Shakespeare himself.

Devin got up in front of his eighth-grade class when a team from Shakespeare at Play, the company that put on "Romeo and Juliet" for Shakespeare in the Park Oct. 3-5, came to Lyal Burkholder Middle School.

The students had been working on a Shakespeare unit in their classes, but this was the first time many of them had seen Shakespeare's work performed live.

"I think I like it a little better, especially because I got to go up there," Devin said.

The actors — Terra Shelman, Brett Colbeth and Aaron Medina — visited Burkholder as part of Shakespeare in the Schools, which put four teams of three actors each in 25 schools around Clark County.

Normally, the presentation lasts about 45 minutes and then another class comes in. At Burkholder, however, the classes were combined for one long session, allowing a few extras.

"We were just surprised because we were expecting one class, a break and another class," Shelman said. "It gave us the opportunity to add the sword fighting and a few other things. It's fun. We love things like this."

The sword fighting was a welcome moment for both students and actors. It was an added attraction to help students get interested.

"For many of them, this is the first time they've seen (Shakespeare)," Shelman said.

Students had been working on various activities during class their language classes, including a "Create your own Shakespearean insults" worksheet.

The Shakespeare actors focused on the language as well, providing students with cards that had words written on them in Shakespearean English and the current translation. Through this, they were able to learn facts such as the "wherefore" in "wherefore art thou, Romeo?" actually means "why" as opposed to "where are you," a common mistake, they said.

In this case, Juliet is asking why Romeo has to be part of the Montague family, the archenemies of her own family of Capulets.

As part of Shakespeare in the Schools, the students had the opportunity to watch an abbreviated version of "Romeo and Juliet" on Oct. 2, before the public performances.

Frances Vanderploeg can be reached at 990-2660 or frances.vanderploeg@hbcpub.com.