“The job of the artist … is to remind people about what they have chosen to forget." -Arthur Miller
A porttrait of Arthur Miller by Robert Shetterly
Shakespeare at Long Creek
Youths take on ‘Romeo and Juliet’
By Stephen Nunns (published: March 15, 2006)
http://www.theforecaster.net/story.php?storyid=5458&ftype=search
Caitlin Shetterly can’t sleep at night.
“I wake up and my heart is pounding,” she said. “I’m sweating. Even my hands and feet are wet with sweat.”
If Shetterly sounds a little like a drama queen, that might just be because she is one. Shetterly is a Portland-based actor/director whose Winter Harbor Theatre Company recently produced “Letters to Ohio” (about the 2004 election) and last fall’s “Letters to Katrina” (about the devastation wreaked upon the Gulf Coast last year). Now, for the third year in a row, Shetterly has turned her theatrical attention to incarcerated teens at the Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland.
With co-director and performance artist Tim Collins, Shetterly is embarking on a new “hip-hop” adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.”
Under Shetterly and Collins’ direction, the kids, who range in age from 16 to 18 years old, have taken Shakespeare’s text and made it their own. Their work culminates with performances Thursday and Friday, March 16 and 17.
“It’s an interactive reinterpretation,” Collins said. “We basically read the play with the kids, field their comments, carve out a bare bones scene and then they rewrite the lines.”
As a result, the feuding Montagues and Capulets are now warring gangs, and while tidbits of the original pops up at moments, most of the dialogue is in a kind of street vernacular that is more Biggie than the Bard. For example, Mercutio’s famous dying words – “A plague o’ both your houses” – a has morphed into “A plague on both your cribs.”
“These kids related to Shakespeare’s words quickly, intuitively and viscerally,” Shetterly said. “The themes – rage, vengeance, love, murder, pain, suicide – these are issues they have to deal with every day.”
Shetterly’s political conscience originally led her to Long Creek – which she calls “a pretty gray place” – to teach acting classes at the juvenile detention facility. In the summer of 2004, she decided to work on a 15-minute version of “Hamlet.”
“That’s me,” she said, “setting the bar a little high.”
Long Creek folks were so pleased with the product that they asked Shetterly to repeat the program that winter. The following year, she brought Collins on board – he had experience teaching youths at the Bennington College July Program in Vermont – to help with an adaptation of “Othello.”
“As you can imagine, race relations are a big deal at Long Creek,” Shetterly said.
However, this year’s project adds a new element that the previous versions didn’t have – girls. And therein lies the source of Shetterly’s insomnia.
“There’s been drama after drama,” she said. “Chaos. Absolute insanity. You have to realize that they’re not allowed to be normal teens. The boys and girls are totally separated. They have these weird, epistolatory relationships that are pretty much based on sending notes to one another. It’s all very 17th century.”
Shetterly and Collins have shaken up the place, with girls and boys mixing it up at rehearsals. And naturally, the drama has carried over into the rehearsal hall. For instance, on a recent day Juliet quit because her “real-life Romeo” had broken up with her. Hours later, she was back at rehearsal after realizing that her on-stage romance might make her ex jealous.
“This has become couples counseling,” Shetterly said.
“There are real challenges,” Collins agreed. “We’ve been there every day for almost four weeks. And that’s important because these kids have basically been let down by everyone else in their lives. Finally, they’re beginning to really trust us.”
Despite all of the bumps, both Collins and Shetterly want to keep doing this work, as long as funding from the Maine Humanities Council and the Maine Community Foundation continues to flow. And while Collins acknowledges that his experience with the upper- to upper-middle class kids at Bennington is considerably different than this kind of work, there’s a certain correlation.
“When the kids are in the midst of the process and they’re nailing their work, the kids at Bennington and the ones at Long Creek are basically the same. And that gives you hope. You realize that these kids are not doomed.”
Shetterly agreed.
“I’ve had people come to the performances and point at some of the kids and say, ‘You’ve got the eight worst kids in the state of Maine in your cast,” she said. “But to me their just regular teens and I love them. They all become my little brothers.
“Or in this case,” she adds, “my brothers and irritating little sisters.”
Stephen Nunns can be reached at 781-3661 ext. 126 or snunns@theforecaster.net.
Youths take on ‘Romeo and Juliet’
By Stephen Nunns (published: March 15, 2006)
http://www.theforecaster.net/story.php?storyid=5458&ftype=search
Caitlin Shetterly can’t sleep at night.
“I wake up and my heart is pounding,” she said. “I’m sweating. Even my hands and feet are wet with sweat.”
If Shetterly sounds a little like a drama queen, that might just be because she is one. Shetterly is a Portland-based actor/director whose Winter Harbor Theatre Company recently produced “Letters to Ohio” (about the 2004 election) and last fall’s “Letters to Katrina” (about the devastation wreaked upon the Gulf Coast last year). Now, for the third year in a row, Shetterly has turned her theatrical attention to incarcerated teens at the Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland.
With co-director and performance artist Tim Collins, Shetterly is embarking on a new “hip-hop” adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.”
Under Shetterly and Collins’ direction, the kids, who range in age from 16 to 18 years old, have taken Shakespeare’s text and made it their own. Their work culminates with performances Thursday and Friday, March 16 and 17.
“It’s an interactive reinterpretation,” Collins said. “We basically read the play with the kids, field their comments, carve out a bare bones scene and then they rewrite the lines.”
As a result, the feuding Montagues and Capulets are now warring gangs, and while tidbits of the original pops up at moments, most of the dialogue is in a kind of street vernacular that is more Biggie than the Bard. For example, Mercutio’s famous dying words – “A plague o’ both your houses” – a has morphed into “A plague on both your cribs.”
“These kids related to Shakespeare’s words quickly, intuitively and viscerally,” Shetterly said. “The themes – rage, vengeance, love, murder, pain, suicide – these are issues they have to deal with every day.”
Shetterly’s political conscience originally led her to Long Creek – which she calls “a pretty gray place” – to teach acting classes at the juvenile detention facility. In the summer of 2004, she decided to work on a 15-minute version of “Hamlet.”
“That’s me,” she said, “setting the bar a little high.”
Long Creek folks were so pleased with the product that they asked Shetterly to repeat the program that winter. The following year, she brought Collins on board – he had experience teaching youths at the Bennington College July Program in Vermont – to help with an adaptation of “Othello.”
“As you can imagine, race relations are a big deal at Long Creek,” Shetterly said.
However, this year’s project adds a new element that the previous versions didn’t have – girls. And therein lies the source of Shetterly’s insomnia.
“There’s been drama after drama,” she said. “Chaos. Absolute insanity. You have to realize that they’re not allowed to be normal teens. The boys and girls are totally separated. They have these weird, epistolatory relationships that are pretty much based on sending notes to one another. It’s all very 17th century.”
Shetterly and Collins have shaken up the place, with girls and boys mixing it up at rehearsals. And naturally, the drama has carried over into the rehearsal hall. For instance, on a recent day Juliet quit because her “real-life Romeo” had broken up with her. Hours later, she was back at rehearsal after realizing that her on-stage romance might make her ex jealous.
“This has become couples counseling,” Shetterly said.
“There are real challenges,” Collins agreed. “We’ve been there every day for almost four weeks. And that’s important because these kids have basically been let down by everyone else in their lives. Finally, they’re beginning to really trust us.”
Despite all of the bumps, both Collins and Shetterly want to keep doing this work, as long as funding from the Maine Humanities Council and the Maine Community Foundation continues to flow. And while Collins acknowledges that his experience with the upper- to upper-middle class kids at Bennington is considerably different than this kind of work, there’s a certain correlation.
“When the kids are in the midst of the process and they’re nailing their work, the kids at Bennington and the ones at Long Creek are basically the same. And that gives you hope. You realize that these kids are not doomed.”
Shetterly agreed.
“I’ve had people come to the performances and point at some of the kids and say, ‘You’ve got the eight worst kids in the state of Maine in your cast,” she said. “But to me their just regular teens and I love them. They all become my little brothers.
“Or in this case,” she adds, “my brothers and irritating little sisters.”
Stephen Nunns can be reached at 781-3661 ext. 126 or snunns@theforecaster.net.