Shakespeare and girls: A powerful partnership

October 11, 2007|By Helen Eckinger, Tribune staff reporter

Two actors were standing on the stage of City Lit Theater rehearsing one of the more emotionally wrought scenes in Shakespeare's plays: "King Lear," Act 4, Scene 6. In the scene, the character named Edgar pretends to lead his blinded father to the cliffs of Dover, knowing that the old man intends to throw himself to his death.

It's a scene that inspires questions from the most seasoned actors. But on this day, the actor playing Edgar has a rather atypical concern.

"Do I sound too much like a girl?" says Ileana Becker, 14, to Ellie Kaufman, co-director of The Viola Project, the non-profit organization conducting the Shakespeare rehearsal.

"You are a girl," Kaufman replies matter-of-factly. "You're always going to sound like a girl."

The Viola Project works to empower girls through the study and performance of Shakespeare's plays. It conducts programs and workshops for girls ages 8 to 18 year-round, including the three-week summer workshop during which Becker posed her question in the "Lear" scene. The workshop culminated in a performance of scenes from various Shakespeare plays.

During the school year Kaufman and co-director Reina Hardy offer one-day weekend workshops that focus on a specific play or theme. The next is scheduled for Oct. 27 at City Lit Theater, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. The workshops can accommodate 16 girls; those wishing to participate must register in advance (visit violapro for more information).

Kaufman and Hardy also work with Chicago-area schools, and in June, Kaufman traveled to Massachusetts and held a weeklong workshop at a drug rehabilitation center for teenage girls.

"You wonder in those circumstances how much Shakespeare can help," Kaufman says. But she found that assuming the roles of Shakespeare's characters allowed the girls to explore their identities and express themselves creatively. She also felt the workshops allowed the girls to release bottled-up tension.

Kaufman and Hardy founded The Viola Project in spring 2004, when both were acting in a local play. At a cast party, Hardy told Kaufman about a Shakespeare acting program she participated in as a child that encouraged cross-gender casting.

"Ellie said, 'We should do that: all girls, all Shakespeare,'" Hardy recalls.

The two held their first workshops that summer, naming their program after Viola, the heroine of "Twelfth Night," who disguises herself as a man after being marooned in a strange land.

"I think she's a great role model -- she's spunky, she's funny, she's witty, she beats people at their own game," Kaufman says.

A different route

Kaufman and Hardy said it was a natural decision to focus on Shakespeare's plays; they're both huge Shakespeare fans and felt his plays are especially suited to children.

"You get to play great characters," Hardy says. "Kids love to play great, juicy roles -- you get to be Hamlet, Lady Macbeth, King Lear."

They also thought performing the plays would expose the girls to Shakespearean language in a way they wouldn't encounter at school.

"I think a lot of people are intimidated by Shakespeare -- they think it's a foreign language," Kaufman says. "But when you get into it, you learn to understand it pretty well. We give them chances to learn while onstage, rather than sitting them down and saying, 'In 1603 -- '"

Though Kaufman and Hardy don't envision The Viola Project as an academic endeavor, participants say the workshops have made English classes easier.

Elisa Meyer, 12, says her exposure to Shakespeare came in handy when she read "The Taming of the Shrew" during the previous school year.

"There were a lot of words and phrases that I knew already and that the teacher didn't have to explain to me," says Elisa. "I got better grades on the tests than I think I would have if I hadn't done" the project.

For girls only

Kaufman and Hardy also knew from the start that they wanted the project to be for girls only. They felt participants would be more focused if they didn't have to worry what boys were thinking, and would be more comfortable playing characters such as Caliban, the monster from "The Tempest," and the hunchbacked, diabolical Richard III, if they were in all-female company.

They also knew from experience that Shakespeare presents actresses with few roles.

"I always noticed when we did plays in high school, whenever we did Shakespeare, there was a whole slew of girls who wanted to be in the play, and two female roles," Kaufman says. "It became less fun because it was so competitive."

Hardy notes that the project is an inversion of Shakespeare's theatrical world, in which all characters -- including the few female ones -- were played by men.

"It's an area of culture that has been barred to women for much of history," she says. "We can't change that, but we can teach them to say, 'This is mine too,' and tell them to go ahead and have fun with it."

Some aspects of the modern world, however, just don't mesh with Shakespearean sensibilities. As Kaufman watches two students rehearse a scene from "The Comedy of Errors," she winces when an actress exits the stage and cries, "Toodles!" to her imaginary audience.

Kaufman sighs.

"Shakespeare never said 'toodles,'" she says.

More information about The Viola Project can be obtained at the following:

Web site: www.violapro

E-mail: info@vio

Phone: 773-426-8268.

Address: The Viola Project, c/o Ellie Kaufman, 432 W. Surf St. #105, Chicago, IL 60657.