Shakespearia: A Comparison Between Teenagers
SHAKESPEARIA is a project launched in 2015 by Kamil Turkaev. Its goal was to create plays based on the works of William Shakespeare with teenagers aged 14-16, performed in English. The project was launched within the walls of Natalia Vlasova’s IH Linguist language school in Voronezh, Russia.
Starting from “Romeo and Juliet” the teenagers and Kamil read and analyzed the material in deep detail, identifying the circumstances and events happening in this great tragedy.
Kamil assumed that the conclusion of this period would be his question, “What do you feel at the end, having gotten to know this story so well?” To his surprise, all the participants in the youth group called Romeo and Juliet idiots, immature individuals, and used other derogatory terms from their youth lexicon. What upset them the most was the death of the protagonists, whom they blamed for their own death.
Kamil realized that the approach and methodology needed a radical change; the traditional principles used in professional theater were not working here.
To ensure that the responses from the teenagers weren’t just a peculiarity of this specific group (around 12-14 people), Kamil decided to repeat the experiment with an adult group, all of whom were parents. Once again, he heard from the group of about 12-13 adults the same lack of understanding toward the characters, insulting comments about them, and unanimous support for the actions of the adults in the play. He must admit, he was slightly indignant: “How can you think this way? You’re all parents! The first thing I expected to hear from you was the word ‘PITY!’ Pity for the children! That’s the phrase I was waiting for.” Only later did he understand that the adult audience, through their criticisms of the main characters, might have been concealing some personal pain, as if this tragedy had occurred in their own lives, and they were carefully trying to avoid letting this experience enter their hearts.
Kamil returned to the teenagers and asked them to write monologues on a very simple topic: WHO OR WHAT DO YOU DISAGREE WITH? WHO DO YOU BLAME FOR WHAT HAPPENED TO ROMEO AND JULIET? Kamil insisted on hearing their genuine, heartfelt thoughts on the subject. He urged them not to worry about offending him or William Shakespeare. In the end, he received a wonderful response, which began as an open conversation and eventually took shape in monologues.
These monologues, developed with his colleagues in the Shakespearia project Jonathan Salway and Solimano Pontarollo, are presented for this showcase. The monologues appeared to be so sincere and honest that they seem to require no further commentary.
In conclusion, Kamil will say that the play came to life and had an interesting run.
Some of the children were cast in the roles of characters they had initially criticized. Like in a real court, they became both the prosecutors and the defenders of their roles. The play was performed in Russia, in Ghent (Belgium) and in Verona (Italy).
Kamil Tukaev, Voronezh Chamber Theater
SHAKESPEARIA in VORONEZH
Presentation of the results of the Shakespearia project with the students of Voronezh.
Their monologues and their judgments show how the universal Shakespearean values are elaborated according to their culture, society and desires.
A result that is then compared with the same process proposed to the English and Italian students, expressing equalities and differences in reading and growth methods of the same students after the Shakespeare experience.
Finally the monologues are presented to the students of the other nations to receive feedback.
Johathan Salway, “Moscow English Theatre”. The company is relocating to Barcelona as “Met on The Road”
SHAKESPEARIA in LONDON
Presentation of the results of the Shakespearia project with the students of London.
Their monologues and their judgments show how the universal Shakespearean values are elaborated according to their culture, society and desires.
A result that is then compared with the same process proposed to the Russian and Italian students, expressing equalities and differences in reading and growth methods of the same students after the Shakespeare experience.
Finally the monologues are presented to the students of the other nations to receive feedback.
Solimano Pontarollo, Casa Shakespeare – Verona
SHAKESPEARIA in VERONA
Presentation of the results of the Shakespearia project with the students of Verona.
Their monologues and their judgments show how the universal Shakespearean values are elaborated according to their culture, society and desires.
A result that is then compared with the same process proposed to the English and Russian students, expressing equalities and differences in reading and growth methods of the same students after the Shakespeare experience.
Finally the monologues are presented to the students of the other nations to receive feedback.