Celebrating Shakespeare at CHS

“Where is our usual manager of mirth?
What revels are in hand? Is there no play,
To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?”

When Theseus asked the question in Act V, scene I of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, he looked around the forest near Athens for entertainment. No need; Columbia High School had more mirth, drama, romance and even history than “cool reason ever comprehends.” Friday saw the the culmination of a week’s activities and a year’s planning.

This year’s festival was dedicated to , the English teacher who died in 2010.

Backstage and in the bustling high school hallways, students and teachers were dressed in Renaissance garb. On stage, students wore costumes that took Shakespeare in a new direction, including neon wigs and cropped t-shirts and tank tops, as they performed the “Desdemona Dance” and scenes from Othello, The Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, and other plays.

The day began around 6 a.m. for the Shakespeare Club and their teachers, Steve MacPherson, Beth Johnson, and Suzanne Logeman.  By 3 p.m., many of the performers were visibly tired.

“Our revels now are ended,” said one weary neon-wigged performer to this Patch editor.  A week without school means rest for tired students; our little life/Is rounded with a sleep.