MEDIA ADVISORY – Harpers Choice Middle School 8th Grade Students Participate in a Two Week Residency

April 17th, 2013

Harper’s Choice Middle School 8th grade students are participating in a two-week residency, April 9-19, 2013, with the Maryland Shakespeare Festival.

• WHO: Harper’s Choice Middle School 8th grade students.
• WHAT: Residency with the Maryland Shakespeare Festival.
• WHEN: April, 9-19, 2013.
• WHERE: Harper’ Choice Middle School, 5450 Beaverkill Road, Columbia, MD. 21044.
• WHY: To bring Shakespeare’s works alive for students as part of the eighth grade curriculum.

Students began the residency with performance of Maryland Shakespeare Festival’s SHAKESPEARE ALIVE!, a fast-paced interactive full-set production to introduce the students to Shakespeare’s plays and language. The students are then led through a series of interactive physical and imaginative exercises, including a Shakespearean insult-off using lines from selected Shakespeare plays.

The students work with the artists in nine sessions during their English language arts class.  In culmination of the residency students will perform selected scenes from Romeo and Juliet at the schoolwide enrichment fair to be held on May 23, 2013. This project was funded in part by a grant from the Howard County Arts Council, through a grant from the Howard County Government, the Maryland State Arts Council, the Columbia Foundation, Target and the Harper’s Choice PTA.