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Fairfield Ludlowe High School Students Take On Shakespeare, Three Times

FAIRFIELD, Conn. – The goal of the “Shakespeare Project” performance at Fairfield Ludlowe High School is to experience the Bard in all his forms – comedy, tragedy and history.

Director Fran Kondziela said she picked the “Shakespeare Project” for this year's fall play for several different reasons.

“One being to educate my own students about Shakespeare, and the way to do that is to perform him,” she said. “The other is to make him more accessible to the audience.”

It’s a "greatest hits" performance, featuring one student as William Shakespeare narrating as he also performs in such plays as "Romeo and Juliet," "Macbeth," "Hamlet," "Richard III," "Taming of the Shrew," "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" and "Henry V."

The play will be set at the Globe Theatre, which the students built and painted themselves.

“We’re trying to be as authentic as possible,” Kondziela said. Audiences will see the main stage of the Globe, including the balcony made famous by Romeo and Juliet. It’s an ambitious project for any high school drama group to tackle, but with 45 students on stage and another 45 backstage, Kondziela said this was the right time to perform it.

“It’s difficult, it’s challenging, but it’s fun, and it’s an accomplishment. I think they’re excited to show it once it’s all set,” she said.

Some of the students are even writing their own music to perform within each play, which is authentic to Shakespeare’s time, she said.

“I really thought it was time, every so many years, I think students should be given the chance to do Shakespeare. We hadn’t done it in the last six years, so I thought it was time to go back to the Bard,” Kondziela said. “I think it’s going to be different, in a way that’s what’s exciting about it.”

There will be three performances on Friday, Dec. 6, at 8 p.m. and Saturday, Dec. 7, at 2 and 8 p.m., in the Fairfield Ludlowe High School Auditorium on Unquowa Road. All tickets are $8.

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