Local students put on quite a show last night at the Southold school amphitheater.
Nearly 40 students grades 7-12 performed William Shakespeare’s The Tempest at the crowded outdoor venue as part of the first annual Playing @ Will Spring Shakespeare Festival.
“We’re still testing the waters on how to use this amphitheater,” Greenport and Southold school district superintendent David Gamberg said. “This is such a great space and this is the exact sort of educational entertainment we want to have here — and how fitting that it’s Shakespeare, since this was the sort of venue he wrote for.”
The festival is in honor of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. It was based on the work of Shakespeare and Company, a professional theater company in Massachusetts that works with students using an in-school “artist in residence” to teach students about Shakespeare is “ways that are personally meaningful, educationally inspiriting and theatrically compelling,” according to the company’s website.
Greenport and Southold’s artist in residence was A.D. Newcomer, who worked with Shakespeare and Company. She has been working with the students for several months on the performance with her co-director, Greenport High School math teacher John Tramontana.
Gamberg says he hopes the Spring Shakespeare Festival will grow bigger and better next year, with more students from more North Fork schools.
SoutholdLOCAL photos by Courtney Blasl
