Allan Appel Photo
Nicholas Avila as Caesar, Yashaira Leguisamon as Cassius, and Makhi Drummond as Cato.
A funny, kid-friendly 30-minute Julius Caesar has its debut and full run in a single performance Tuesday night at 6:30 at the Mauro-Sheridan School on Fountain Street.
All that stabbing on the Ides of March at the Forum is really not much more than gentle poking.
There’s no blood even of the fake variety. A lot of kids are getting confidence-building turns on stage while being introduced to the Bard and a lot of new and cool vocab, according to the school’s literacy tutor, Jodi Schneider. Sample line: “Romans, friends, countrymen — everyone shut your yaps!”
During a dress rehearsal for the third Shakespeare production he’s done at the school, local actor Jeremy Funke, the director/abridger, said the idea to mount Julius Caesar (in the previous two seasons he abridged the Tempest and MacBeth) grew out of initial discussion with the Mauro-Sheridan kids during elections in November.
Jhenzen as Titus in foreground while Victor Avila as Mark Antony fixes his laurel wreath at rehearsal.
“We talked about what government used to look like,” he said.
Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln was also in the movie theaters at the time. Funke said he and the kids talked about how John Wilkes Booth so loved Julius Caesar that when he leaped to the stage of Ford’s theater after shooting Lincoln, he cried out the famous lines, “Sic semper tyrranis,” or “thus always to tyrants.”
They happen to be Cassius’ lines. At Mauro Sheridan they belong to sixth-grader Yashaira Leguisamon.
Cassius’s role was to have been played by Jhenzen Gonzales, but Gonzales’ family had to go to the Phillipines for a month, so she could not be around for a hunk of the twice-weekly, two-and-a-half-hour rehearsals that have been ongoing since Christmas break.
Putting on the play required a significant time commitment, the daring to get on the stage for the first time for most of the kids, and a partnership with parents who have to pick their kids up at 5:30 pm., when the school provides no buses.
As a result of her absence, Jhenzen, who was Lady MacBeth last yea, is playing three smaller roles, having relinquished that troubled Roman solon to Yashaira.
“I was upset at first, but I was happy my friend Yashaira got the role. She’s a really good actress,” Jhenzen said during a break in the dress rehearsal.
Jhenzen wants to be an acto. Yashaira is determined to be a music teacher. She also gave voice to a deep understand of the pleasures of acting: What she gets most out of the experience is to be able to be someone else, however briefly, she said.
Mauro-Sheridan Literacy Coach Judy Nacca said that except for such school-to-school or after-school enrichment, Shakespeare is not part of the regular curriculum in the New Haven Public Schools until the 9th grade.
Funke’s program, which is close to a labor of love, is therefore an introduction to Shakespeare for the kids, and in many cases to their families as well.
Checking out the not very bloody gashes.
The costumes and set were created by seniors at the Hopkins School as part of a day of service.
To prepare, the cast went to the Yale Center for British Art to walk see images of Shakespeare.
An extra treat is coming their way in August: Their director has role in Elm Sheakespeare Company’s next production.
Yes, it’s Julius Caesar
I go to Mauro-Sheridan and I'm in the 4th grade. I was in the play tonight. One of my lines was Liberty and freedom live. (in the second picture). I was Cinna The Senator. I am also in the back round of the first picture. I was in Macbeth last year too. Jeremy Funke Makes it really fun!!! I LOVE SHAKESPEARE!!!!!
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