Dramatic media students to present works of Shakespeare

Students involved in dramatic media will be performing a skill set Nov. 14 and 15 in Jackson Auditorium. Through different scenes and monologues, the students will focus on excerpts from some of Shakespeare's plays.

"Our teacher for the dramatic skills laboratory has assigned us several bits and pieces from Shakespeare's 'All's Well That Ends Well' and 'A Midsummer Night's Dream,'" Amy Peveto, junior dramatic media major, said. "The skills set will be our final performance of those scenes."

According to Peveto, a skill set is a showcase of everything that one has learned throughout a given period of time.

"Students should expect to see numerous scenes and monologues from two of Shakespeare's most famous comedies," Peveto said.

The students, a mix of both upper and underclassmen with different levels of experience, have spent their semester working on memorization of their parts, as well as the movements and performance of some of Shakespeare's sonnets.

"We will be spending the rest of the semester up until the weekend of Nov. 14 and 15 on memorizing, staging and rehearsing our scenes," Peveto said.

The set designs for the performances are minimal, therefore the audience will have to use their imaginations rather than the focus being on the set created.

According to Peveto, it is more difficult to act with a small group of two to five actors than it is to perform alone.

"Each person will have to learn their own lines, their blocking and most importantly, how to react and listen to their fellow actors," Peveto said.

The main goal the students have as part of their class is "something that the class members can be proud of, and something that will have helped each of [them] grow as actors," Peveto said. "As for the audience, I hope that they are entertained, and come away from the experience with a better understanding and appreciation of Shakespeare, as well as the actors who perform his work."