This summer, the Greenwood Shakespeare Project will once again collaborate with ArtPlace Mississippi and Greenwood Little Theatre to present the Fourth Annual Shakespeare Summer Camp for youth. 

For five weeks, participants will be trained in Shakespeare's plays and Elizabethan stage conventions, set construction, music, dance, and scenery/costume design. The camp will culminate in three nights of performance on July 11-13 at Greenwood Little Theatre. Featuring veteran stage actors, a professional carpenter, and renowned artists and designers, the Shakespeare Summer Camp is one of the Delta's foremost arts education program for youth.

The camp will run Mondays-Fridays from 1 pm to 5 pm starting on June 10th, 2019. All students in grade 7-12 are welcome to apply. All registrants will be required to complete an audition before admission into the camp. Registration deadline is May 15. Contact Steve Iwanski with any further questions. 

2019 Camp Schedule

Auditions (Required for ALL registrants)

• May 21-23, 5pm - Episcopal Church of the Nativity

• Leaders: Steve Iwanski & GLT actors/directors

Week 1 - Theatre, Movement, and Performance

• June 10-14 - Episcopal Church of the Nativity parish hall

• Leaders: Steve Iwanski & GLT actors/directors

Week 2 - Shakespearean Performance

• June 17-21 - Episcopal Church of the Nativity parish hall

• Leaders: Steve Iwanski & GLT actors/directors

Week 3 - Set Design and Construction

• June 24-28 - Greenwood Little Theatre

• Leader: Richard Elliott, Design Build Solutions

Week 4 - Scenery, Costume, and Prop Design

• July 1-5 - ArtPlace and GLT

• Leaders: Yolande van Heerden & Will Perkins

Week 5 - Dress Rehearsals

• July 7-10 - GLT

• Leaders: Adult Team

SHOW

• July 11-13 - GLT

• Students arrive at 5:30, show starts at 7:30. Tickets $5 in advance at $10 at the door.

Recap of the Previous Years

Week 1 - Theatre, Movement, and Performance

June 13-17 - Episcopal Church of the Nativity youth room and parish hall
Leaders: Steve Iwanski & GLT actors/directors

June 14: Breathe in, breathe out. In Day 2 of our Shakespeare Boot Camp, Dr. Cheryl Weiss taught a Masterclass in proper posture, breathing, and movement for speaking onstage. She had our kids pushing Episcopal Church of the Nativity's Books of Common Prayer with their breath! Dr. Weiss returns this afternoon to help participants with their monologues, but they're already off to a great start.

June 17: What a fun but exhausting day yesterday at our Shakespeare Boot Camp. We memorized and then choreographed a performance piece to go with Ariel's song from The Tempest - all in a couple hours! These kids are having a blast and learning so much. Today Alicia Pernell Dallas will teach them how to block and direct a scene. Lots of thanks to Cameron Abel, Buddy Hendricks, Shannon Melton, Marsha Lucas, and Annie Smith for helping us out.

Week 2 - Shakespearean Performance

June 20-24 - Episcopal Church of the Nativity youth room and parish hall
Leaders: Steve Iwanski & GLT actors/directors

June 21: It's Week 2 of Shakespeare Boot Camp and our actors finally got their scripts! We spent the entire afternoon critically analyzing a very small slice of 'Hamlet' and using textual evidence to support interpretations of the scene. Special thanks to our Masterclass teacher Andy Donnelly, who took a break from the Sunflower County Freedom Project this summer so our kids could get a taste of a Harvard literature class.

June 22: "Suit the action to the word, the word to the action; with this special overstep not the modesty of nature: for any thing so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature." 

Thanks for the advice, Prince Hamlet. We're hard at work at Shakespeare Boot Camp: rehearsing our scenes, running lines, memorizing cues, and speaking our speeches trippingly on the tongue. For a sneak peek at the plays represented in our Scene Fest on July 15-16, check out that whiteboard!

Week 3 - Set Design and Construction

June 27-30 - Greenwood Little Theatre
Leader: Richard Elliott, Design Build Solutions

June 29: "Imitate the action of the tiger; stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood. Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage. Then lend the eye a terrible aspect." 

To finish out Week 2 of our Shakespeare Boot Camp, David Dallas came back to help us with stage combat - sword & dagger duels, mob brawls, and how to die onstage - safely! 16 days till our show!

June 30: "But pardon the flat unraised spirits that have dared on this unworthy scaffold to bring forth so great an object. Can this cockpit hold the vasty fields of France?" 

Accomplished so far in Week 3 of Shakespeare Boot Camp: measured every conceivable dimension of stage and backstage at Greenwood Little Theatre, sketched plan and elevation designs for the set, constructed torches and cauldron from raw materials, conducted needs assessment for props and scenery, framed out for stairs and balcony. Oh AND built custom swords. Special thanks to Richard Elliott and Delta Design•Build Workshop for leading Week 3 of our camp!

Week 4 - Scenery, Costume, and Prop Design

July 1 - 10 - ArtPlace, then later at GLT
Leaders: Yolande van Heerden & Robin Whitfield

July 5: "There is the playhouse now, there must you sit. And thence to France shall we convey you safe, and bring you back, charming the narrow seas to give you gentle pass; for, if we may, we'll not offend one stomach with our play." 

Now that's a promise we can keep! Through hours of toil, gallons of sweat, and a bit of blood, we have constructed our set! Week 4 begins this week with scenery, costume, backdrop, and prop design. Special thanks to our adult instructors, Richard Elliott, Delta Design•Build Workshop, Yolande van Heerden, and Will Perkins. Only ten days till opening night!

July 7: "He was indeed the glass wherein the noble youth did dress themselves... He was the mark and glass, copy and book, that fashion'd others." 

See the noble youth dressing themselves! Our costume and scenery shop is thrumming with energy, with lots of help from our valiant teachers Yolande van Heerden and Will Perkins at Art Place Mississippi. Have you ever seen a Shakespeare play in which the King wore a costume he made himself? Yes, the emperor has new clothes, but so does everyone else! See lots more at our production at Greenwood Little Theatre on July 15-16 at 7:30. 

July 10: "Why tender'st thou that paper to me, with a look untender? If't be summer news, smile to't before; if winterly, thou need'st but keep that countenance still." It's summer news, so let's smile! A great Lifestyles front page feature by Ruthie Robison in Sunday's Greenwood Commonwealth. 

Week 5 - Dress Rehearsals
July 11-14 - GLT
Leaders: Adult Team

July 11: "O, for a muse of fire that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention, a kingdom for a stage, princes to act, and monarchs to behold the swelling scene!" It's TECH WEEK at the Greenwood Shakespeare Project as we put it all together for our show this weekend. The costumes are ready, the set is painted, the lights are hot, the swords are sharp, and lines are memorized. 

SHOW
July 15-16 - GLT
Students arrive at 5:30, show starts at 7:30.