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“Becoming Prospero” An Original Take on “The Tempest”
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On Monday May 18, students in Alissa Davis’ 9th Grade English class performed an original version of Shakespeare’s The Tempest in the Academic & Performing Arts Center lobby. The unique performance, titled “Becoming Prospero,” told the classic tale through the character Prospero’s lines.
On Monday May 18, students in Alissa Davis’ 9th Grade English class performed an original version of Shakespeare’s The Tempest in the Academic & Performing Arts Center lobby. The unique performance, titled “Becoming Prospero,” told the classic tale through the character Prospero’s lines.
Davis played the role of narrator, leading the audience through the plot, speaking between each student to explain the meaning behind Prospero’s words.
Davis shared that the idea for this performance emerged from years of teaching the text:
“For nearly 10 years, 9th graders have been reading The Tempest as one of our core texts. It's customary to memorize and recite lines from the play as part of our study. Last year, I ‘stitched’ together many of Prospero's lines with narration.
In this piece, the class gets to explore the play through Prospero's language tracing his journey from vengeance to mercy. Students worked together to edit the script and conceive the plan for the performance. This gave us an opportunity to reflect on Shakespeare's own acting conventions.
We greatly benefitted from Elm Shakespeare's Producing Artistic Director, Rebecca Goodheart, who visited the class to guide us in a lesson on how to rehearse the text. We are thankful for the faculty and staff who came to watch the show during our last regular class of the year!”
Hopkins is a private middle school and high school for grades 7-12. Located on a campus overlooking New Haven, CT, the School takes pride in its intellectually curious students as well as its dedicated faculty and staff.
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