Shakespeare comes to Lynn

LYNN – Like most students, Keri Cahill couldn’t stand Shakespeare lessons in high school and college, avoiding the classic playwright’s work at any cost.It wasn’t until she began acting in renditions of his plays that the member of Salem’s Rebel Shakespeare Company began to understand the importance of learning Shakespeare, something she is now attempting to show Harrington Elementary School students as an artist-in-residence this month.Cahill will be on hand in the school’s library throughout the week, giving most students their first exposure to Shakespeare with a series of fun activities. Her appearance was made possible in part through a grant by the Lynn Cultural Council, written by Carole Shutzer, the school’s library media specialist.Unlike the Shakespeare lessons most students receive behind a desk, Cahill takes an interactive approach to teaching the students, reviewing the language and literary concepts through acting and games so that students do not become bored with the heavy content.”This is about getting them excited about Shakespeare because I hated Shakespeare in high school and college. I tried to avoid it,” Cahill said. “I finally became interested when somebody got me up and actually doing it. It is about introducing them to the language before they have a chance to just sit behind a desk and get bored. This is really a fun age to work with, because they really have no knowledge of poetic language.”Cahill instructed a class of fourth graders Monday morning, introducing them to Shakespeare first through a list of funny insults taken from his various works. Students were asked to pair up and create a skit using the insults and act them out in front of the class.Stuttering through lines like “Were I like thee, I would throw away myself,” and “Thou art a disease that must be cut away,” students acted out short comedy scenes set in such modern facilities as train stations and ball parks.Although the students struggled to spit out the lines, they enjoyed the exercise and the rare chance to insult one another without being reprimanded.Students also participated in acting and reading lessons, and later in the week, will work on performing a portion of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”Cahill, who has worked with students at the Harrington and other schools in the past, says the Shakespeare lessons are especially helpful to students who have problems learning or concentrating in school, because it gives them a rare chance to stand up, move around and blow off some steam”This is great for kids who have attention issues – and I actually have (Attention Deficit Disorder) myself – because they can get up and move around,” she said. “Usually it is the kids that the teacher says are the worst behaved that enjoy it the most.”Cahill will work with students at the Harrington throughout this week and will offer spots in her summer program for interested students.