Over the weekend hundreds of students from kindergarten through high school performed scenes from Shakespeare in Balboa Park as part of the San Diego Student Shakespeare Festival.
For the twelfth year, the San Diego Shakespeare Society hosted the San Diego Student Shakespeare Festival.
The Shakespeare Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to introducing, educating and encouraging the public’s understanding and enjoyment of the works of William Shakespeare. Key to achieving that mission statement is the Student Shakespeare Festival, which involves students of all ages from all over the county and sometimes from around the globe. This year the diversity of organizations participating ranged from Spencer Valley School's one-room schoolhouse in Santa Ysabel to Boy Scout Troop 1212.
Students performed scenes that were less than ten minutes long on five outdoor stages that lined the Prado on Saturday, April 29. Selections included tragedies, comedies, histories and even sonnets. Some students created music or dance pieces inspired by the Bard while others selected classic scenes such as the Witches from "Macbeth" or The Mechanics staging "Pyramus and Thisbe" in "A Midsummer Night's Dream."
The Shakespeare Society believes that if children are exposed to Shakespeare at an early age it will help them academically.
Here is a video postcard from the festival to give you a taste of what students and teachers put together for the San Diego Student Shakespeare Festival.
