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| All photos by Dinah deSpenza |
While some
universities have dropped the Shakespeare requirement for English majors,
Oakland School for the Arts’ weekend performance got standing ovation on their
version of Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors. The performance was the first weekend in December 2011.
Featuring
acrobats, aerialists, mistaken identities, slapstick, puns, word play and much
more, these middle and high school students under the direction of Terry
Bamberger, Theater teacher, received
standing ovations all weekend long from a packed house at the Kinetic
Arts Center in Oakland.
The Comedy of
Errors is one of William Shakespeare’s
earliest, shortest and farcical comedies.
In the OSA’s
version, the town of Ephesus is suggestive of a 10th century Italian
circus town preparing for their town’s performance. The setting of the comedy
involves a history of portrayal in a fashion done with clowns and jesters in 19th
century London productions that resurged in the 21st century by the
Brothers Karamazov, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the San Francisco
Shakespeare Festival’s 2009 production.
According to
Bamberger, it was their first Shakespeare production and it was transformative.
“To watch the cast of students go from the first reading after never having
done this before, the kids got a crash course in scanning lines, imagery and
research as well as a crash course in history that created meaning for them now
– within a two month period.”
With a cast of 28
actors and crewmembers, the make-up and exquisite costumes created a magic on
stage that was impressive. “A lot of the costumes were on loan from American
Conservatory Theater in San Francisco,” says Bamberger.
OSA provides
students with intensive conservatory style training in the arts while
maintaining a rigorous college-preparatory curriculum. “Our students work and
study hard and really know how to play hard as well,” says Don Harris,
Executive and Artistic Director.
Filled with the
dramatic mix of trickery, nimble jugglers deceiving the eye, amazing acrobats
and dark working sorcerers, this skilled cast of circus arts and theater
student actors’ delivered a five–show run in one weekend.
“The most fun of
all for me were the cool tricks I got to do, says 8th grader,”
Isabella Miller. Miller is a member of the Circus Spire Youth Group.
The college prep
arts school is a charter from Oakland Unified School District and was the dream
child of California Governor Jerry Brown.
Starting at the
Alice Arts Center Building in downtown Oakland in 2002, by January, 2009 it
moved to the newly remodeled historical Fox Oakland Theater.
The first senior
graduation class of 2006, graduated with 100 percent of the class being
accepted at four-year colleges. Students were accepted at a wide variety of
academic and artistic institutions to include, Le Cardon Bleu California
Culinary Academy, Columbia University, Stanford University, Spelman College,
Howard University, Berklee College of Music, Boston Conservatory, California
College of the Arts, UCLA, UC Berkeley, San Francisco State, Cal State University East Bay and
many more.
Known as one of
the most supported schools in Oakland by parents, teachers and the community,
the school has done international productions in New York, England, and all
over the globe.
Andrea Fullington and Terese Merrell, parents of
middle school students participating in the performance were in charge of
advertising and publicity. Fullington and Merrell worked diligently to
attract advertising for the performance from a variety of sources, including
KQED and KCBS.
“The students are
amazing and represent the culture of visual arts in Oakland,” says Rozita
Fogelman, mother of Primo Stockton, 7th grade, who played the First
Merchant in the production.
