On December 5, the junior British Literature students practiced throwing one another to the ground and fending off blows. Dane Leasure, of the Rubber City Shakespeare Company, came to Walsh Jesuit and taught them how to perform combat scenes in Shakespeare’s plays.

Mrs. Krueger, a Brit. Lit. teacher, invited Leasure to Walsh Jesuit because “Shakespeare is meant to be viewed and not read as a book; therefore, I wanted Rubber City Shakespeare to come show students how to put on a great fight scene.” Mrs. Krueger also commented on the general appeal of the activity and plans on doing this again next year.

When asked for his reaction to the stage combat lesson, Camden Pace exclaimed, “That was the best class I’ve ever had in my life!” The students enjoyed taking time out of the classroom to develop their acting skills, but Brian Carlini suggested, “It would have been cool to go to both the play and do the stage combat.”

Students often question the relevance of Shakespeare’s plays to modern society. Leasure believes the themes in Shakespeare such as good vs. evil, appearance vs. reality, conflict, corruption, and loyaltyare the same as those in today’s world. Lauren Timm agreed, “I think the overall message and themes can be applied to today’s situations, but I don’t think it was necessary to take a whole semester to only focus on Shakespeare.”

Leasure believes Shakespeare’s plays are valuable for high school students because “ if we took a little more time to break through the barrier of language, they would feel more connected to the stories. Shakespeare has great life lessons, but he also has really funny dirty jokes, and I think it’s perfect for high schoolers.”

Junior Alaina O’Donnell affirms the relevance of Shakespeare to high schoolers, saying, Leasure “shows the students in today’s society that it is alright to be in touch with their emotions whether positive or negative just as Shakespeare expresses through his works.”

According to rubbercityshakes.com, stage combat is defined as a “practical component that uses unarmed combat to tell a story.” As the students learned to choreograph combat with each other, their activity brought textual analysis from a Shakespeare play to life. When asked how “fighting” with a classmate felt, Pam Digirolamo responded, “It wasn’t that difficult to learn. It was cool learning how to act out the different techniques.”