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The swordplay's the thing at Shakespeare show (and wordplay, too)

FALLS VILLAGE — For an audience in Elizabethan England — explained the actor — a play was the equivalent of the movies, television and a rock concert rolled into one event.

“With one important difference,� said Meg O’Connor of Shakespeare and Co. “The audience came to hear the play.�

A troupe of six young actors from the Lenox, Mass., theater group visited the Lee H. Kellogg School Thursday, April 1, and presented a program of excerpts from Shakespeare; trivia about Shakespeare; and reasons for Shakespeare to matter today.

Plus some swordplay.

“Shakespeare has everything� said David Joseph, in response to the question “Why do you like Shakespeare?�

“Anger, revenge — any emotion found in life is in Shakespeare.�

The troupe also found time for a quick vocabulary lesson.

“The King James Bible has a vocabulary of 6,500 words,� said Dana Harrison. “Shakespeare has 37,000, including —�

And the group began calling out words, some archaic, some familiar, and too fast to write them all down.

“Lickspittle! Lily-livered! Requiem! Rebate!

“Fartuous!�

(It means “virtuous� in a snide way.)

Joseph and Kelly Galvin did a scene from “Romeo and Juliet,� with Romeo in the bleachers among the students, who also got a kick out of Harrison’s Hermia chasing Enrico Spada’s Demetrius (“A Midsummer Night’s Dream�) through the audience.

After the presentation to the large group of students, the actors did workshops with smaller groups.

In between, O’Connor said it was a challenge to bring the Shakespearian message to a school like Kellogg, with a relatively small number of students encompassing a wide range of ages.

“That’s why we do the bits with the swords, to keep everybody interested,� she said.

The program was sponsored by the Friends of Lee Kellogg School (FOLKS).

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