William Jones, assistant professor of English, brandishes a T-shirt Tuesday afternoon as part of the Shakespeare Festival activities. || Photos by Lori Allen/The News
William Shakespeare invaded Murray State this week during the annual celebration of the Shakespeare Festival.
For twelve years, the English department has sponsored this week-long event filled with performances, lectures and educational workshops.
“The Shakespeare Festival has things which are both educational and entertaining,” said Rusty Jones, chair of Murray State’s Shakespeare Festival. “There is a lot of outreach and many diverse events for the community and the region in general.”
This year, Daryl Phillipy, assistant professor of Theater, conducted a workshop on Shakespeare’s metrics set to rock music in Wilson Hall. The event was called Shakespeare’s Dance Party.
“The Dance Party was a new experience for the students,” Phillipy said. “I hope they were able to free some inhibitions and took away some understanding of the ‘music’ of Shakespeare’s language.”
In addition to the Dance Party, the theater department hosted a flash mob and Shakespearean insult battle in the Curris Center Rocking Chair Lounge on Tuesday. T-shirts and other small prizes were given to the students who participated.
The largest parts of the festival this year, however, were the performances of “Twelfth Night” and “The Duchess of Malfi.” The plays were performed by the American Shakespeare Center actors from Staunton, Va., as a part of their Tempt Me Further Tour.
These actors are professionals who attempt to recreate the Shakespearian or Renaissance feel in every show they perform. They involved the crowd in each performance by having audience members sit on the stage.
Much like the performances of Shakespeare’s plays, curtains and sets were not used.
“The performers come here to offer low-cost, professional theater to Murray State students, faculty and staff,” Jones said. “But they also provide the entire region with low-cost, professional theater.”
These performers also aided the theater department with an acting workshop which took place at Playhouse in the Park.
In previous years, the ASC performances and workshops have drawn in more than 2,000 Murray State students and community members. According to Jones, the large turnout is good for numerous reasons.
“This provides more outreach to the community,” Jones said. “We are able to offer the community this level of professional theater, and frankly that is a public service the English department will carry on as long as they can.”
Preparation for future generations of education majors is another reason Jones said he believes the festival is helpful to Murray State students.
“Those who are education majors here at Murray State will face teaching Shakespeare,” he said. “We are helping produce teachers who will have a much better grasp of Shakespeare after seeing a professional company perform the play.”
Phillipy said he agrees the students benefit greatly from seeing the plays performed on stage and attending the workshops.
“The Shakespeare Festival exposes our theater students to Shakespeare in live performance,” Phillipy said. “It helps them gain a greater appreciation for the wonderful legacy that Shakespeare has left for actors.”
At 3:30 p.m. today, the ASC will host a stage combat workshop in Faculty Hall Room 208. The workshop will feature Murray State’s Fencing Club and will last about an hour.
Bringing the festival to a close this evening, the ASC will present their last performance of “Twelfth Night” at 7 p.m. in Lovett Auditorium. Tickets are $5 with a student ID and $10 for the general public.
Story by Hunter Harrell, Staff writer.