- It's really weird not to be working in Little Shakespeare anymore because it was such a large part of my life for a very long time and now it's not.

And that's kind of sad 'cause I really miss it.

I actually keep on having dreams that I'm on stage and it's really kind of annoying, but it's also really fun that I keep having dreams about it.

And the annoying reason is because it's not real anymore, so it's kind of sad that I'm never going to experience it again.

But at the same time, I'm really grateful to have done it.

I just feel kind of- It's almost a little lonely to...

I'm not there anymore, so I guess it's kind of isolating.

But at the same time, I just had so much fun.

So I guess...

I don't know, it just really affected me, I guess.

Especially never having been in a play before.

I just... That was a big experience and very fun.

[gentle music begins] - [Jessica] I am going to make a video diary every day I'm at rehearsal.

So this is day one of the video diaries.

[gentle music continues] I'm Jessica Lynn Ardolina.

- [Rakesh] Just try to find something that is alive, like making the scene alive, and it's not done on your own, it's done with each other.

[gentle music continues] [man claps] [students shuffling] - I am Ryan Lidner.

I am the Directing Assistant.

- Hi, my name is Joseph McKenzie.

I play Claudio in- [Joseph laughs] Nah, I'm just kidding.

- [Interviewer] No, that's good, that's good, man.

- [Melody] I feel like I'm being interrogated.

It's okay, it's cool.

- [Interviewer] The lights are on.

Do you need the mask on?

- Hello, everyone.

Hello everyone.

It's Dom again.

[man speaking indistinctly] - Will the owner of a 2006 Toyota Prius please come to the back, your headlights are on.

- I enjoy it.

I like working.

[footsteps pounding] [footsteps continue pounding] [woman speaking indistinctly] - [Rakesh] You've come here, for whatever time you're here.

It's almost like we are creating another world, you know?

And it's the same thing that we were talking about, to connect, to communicate.

But for us to do it together here.

- I've been acting in school productions since I was in sixth grade.

So coming here after school every day was like, it was a different energy than at school, and I found that I could really be myself and I wasn't confined by people's previous thoughts of me.

[students cheering] [man speaking indistinctly] [gentle music continues] - It always changes me.

Every performance always changes me.

- I didn't tell anyone this 'cause I didn't wanna worry anyone, but I remember opening night standing in the little back room right before I made my entrance, I had to have the moment of, I really hope I don't freeze up on stage, 'cause this was my first role I had speaking.

[gentle music continues] - I love nothing in the world so well as you.

Is not that strange?

- For thee I'll lock up all the gates of love.

And on my eyelids shall conjecture hang, to turn all beauty into thoughts of harm, and never shall it be more gracious.

- I cannot be a man with wishing, therefore I will die a woman with grieving.

- [Rakesh] You can only find a character once you've lived through the character, and you do that on stage.

If you go through all the dramatic situations that the character or the play is giving you, then you live through it.

Then you know the character.

So you can't know the character before.

You have to go through the play and live through each scene to really know who the character is.

[gentle music continues] [students speaking indistinctly] - [Female Student] This looks not like a nuptial.

- [Male Student] When loving goes by half, some Cupids kill with arrows and some with traps.

- [Student] I would she had bestowed this dotage on me.

I would have daffed all other respects and made her half myself.

- [Male Student 2] Oh, plague right well prevented, so will you say when you have seen the sequel.

- [Male Student 3] When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I would live 'til I were married.

- [Rakesh] Feel deeply, love deeply.

Feel those moments of pain and live.

That's why we do this.

That's why theater is beautiful because you bring something up and then you are the ones to carry.

- I... actually, no.

I don't say anything that...

I don't know.

I'm afraid I'm gonna say anything that could be used against me.

- You asked for it, people.

- You asked for this.

- You asked for it.

[gentle music ends] - [Narrator] Here's the story.

[gentle music] - [Interviewer] In your words, what is the Little Shakes, Little Shakespeare Program?

- So I heard about it back in freshman year when I first got into high school.

- I think it's an opportunity for people to put themselves out there and to have a fun experience with other people who have similar interests as you do.

Students, both actors and backstage crew, get to work with professionals in the industry to put on a professional show from the ground up.

- So it's a great place for us to put a show together and learn about Shakespeare.

- It is a safe, controlled, and professional setting for kids who don't really know what this is and don't really know what the industry entails to get a firsthand experience.

- It's just a program that gives teenagers the opportunity to do Shakespeare plays 'cause a lot of high schools are hesitant to have us do Shakespeare because they're afraid of memorization and being able to understand and dissect the text.

- Personally for me, the Little Shakes Program was about doing the Shakespeare piece, experience out the window, doesn't matter what you've done.

You know what I mean?

You always come in with an open mind anyway.

So it didn't really matter about experience.

And it was like a new avenue to look down.

That's really what it was for me.

- [Interviewer] Had you appeared in a Shakespearean play before?

- I have not.

I auditioned for one.

I auditioned for "Much Ado" a year before this for Claudio and I got called back and I didn't get it.

So I saw this and I was like, better show them.

- Little Shakespeare is a program through which we do a 75 minute cut of a Shakespeare play which is designed and directed by theater professionals and performed and supported backstage by high school students.

- To me it's just another...

It is another play working with actors.

It doesn't seem to me that they are younger adults but it's just working with actors, which is the good thing.

It's not like a high school version of something.

It's like, I had this conversation with them.

The first rehearsal I was like, I will keep pushing you and we are going to put up a proper play.

As you say, it's not a Little Shakes program, it is just a Shakespeare.

We're putting up a Shakespeare play, so let's get down to it.

And I said, we'll have fun and there'll be rigor attached to it as well.

But I don't know much about how other programs operate.

The one beautiful thing is the resources that are available at Two Rivers, the people, and for these kids to come in and work with all the designers, the creatives attached to it, and for them as well, the creatives to work with the kids, it's a beautiful thing, and it's a joyful thing.

It really is.

And after this pandemic it was a joyful experience.

And I was telling Diana and Kate, I want to capture this joy, which we seem to have lost after COVID.

It's so difficult to find that joy now in what we do.

Even theater, it's just everyone is a bit stressed.

They're all going through things.

So it's like, I just want to have that joy, not just in the room and the show, but just have them experience that while we do the show.

[gentle music continues] [acoustic guitar music] [students chattering] [students speaking indistinctly] - [Cheyenne] Did Signior Montanto return from the war, or no?

- [Melody] I don't know anyone with that name, my lady.

There's none such in the army of that sort.

- [Matte] What is he that you're asked for, niece?

- [Female Student 2] My cousin means Signior Benedick of Padua.

- [Melody] Oh, he's returned, and as pleasant as he ever was.

- [Matte] Hey niece, you attack Signior Benedick too much, but he'll be met with you I doubt enough.

- [Melody] He's done good service, lady, in these wars.

Such is all honorable reviews.

- [Cheyenne] It is so indeed.

He is no less than a stuffed man, but for the stuffing, well, we all are human.

- Our director, Rakesh, he made us do these little improvs where we kind of did the scene that we were on, but we did it in modern language with our own kind of twist on it.

And I think that really helped me kind of figure out how to say the dialogue and really what it means.

So, I came in here kind of not sure what to expect, but I really think I came out with a lot of new experience and new skills.

- [Cheyenne] Can I just ask, is a person by the last name of Montanto with him?

- I don't really know anyone named Montanto.

- [Female Student 2] Yeah, she means Benedick of Padua.

- [Melody] Oh, I know him.

Yeah, he's a great soldier.

- [Cheyenne] Yeah, sure.

- [Melody] What's wrong?

- [Cheyenne] Nothing, he's just a stuffed man.

[students laugh] - That was a real shocker for me.

I was like...

I was at first I was thrown off, confused, and I was like, what do you mean?

Are we not here to do Shakespeare?

But then you do this again and again, and I think that's what helped us also understand how to grasp it.

Like truly grasp it.

Because it is difficult to decipher, and it's just such a deep, underlying meaning, and Rakesh really helped us by letting us use our own words.

- For me, when you look at Shakespeare text, it's Elizabethan, it looks old, and actors or people have a way of seeing Shakespeare.

They're like, oh, this is how it should be or this is what it is.

And for me, making it contemporary doesn't just mean you put it in a modern setting.

It's like, how do you make this language your own?

What is this language doing?

Shakespeare gives us the dramatic situations and the story, but how do we embody the story?

And it's something I do with every text I work with.

It's like classic text.

We have these dramatic situations but how do we make this our own?

So it's like working with actors, not just on paraphrasing.

It's just for them to know what they're saying.

But also sometimes they come up with new versions of what they could be saying.

Do you all know what you're saying?

[students responding] Are you sure?

[students continue responding] It's all interpretation and it's just getting those creative juices flowing about how can you interpret different lines, different situations?

What is this romantic situation?

What can it become?

I'm closing my heart to everything.

This is like quality of being a bit emotional.

Because you're like, now every time I fall in love with someone, there will always be suspicion hanging about.

Conjecture is suspicious.

And to turn all beauty into thoughts of harm...

Does that make sense?

And now it shall be more clear to you.

- [Joseph] Yes.

- [Rakesh] Does it really?

You can say no.

- [Joseph] No, it does make sense.

Yeah, it does.

- [Rakesh] But what I want is just to get to the essence of what you're saying.

Don't worry about what the language is doing.

Yeah?

Great, let's take a break, and when we come back, we'll meet in there and with more energy.

We'll meet with more energy.

- [Female Speaker] Sorry, let's take 15, y'all.

We'll be back at six- - [Rakesh] I also give them a lot of room to play around.

And sometimes they're like, oh, what are we doing?

And I'm like, I don't know.

You have to figure that out.

You are the actor.

- [Darrion] Lady Beatrice, have you wept all this while?

- [Cheyenne] Yea, and I will weep a while longer.

- [Darrion] I will not desire that.

- [Cheyenne] You have no reason, I do it freely.

- [Darrion] Is there any way to show such friendship?

- [Cheyenne] A very even way, but no- - [Rakesh] You only throw when you finish your line.

So it's like giving cue to the other person.

Does that make sense?

- [Cheyenne] Yeah.

- [Rakesh] So if you don't say your line, you keep the ball.

- [Cheyenne] Okay.

- [Rakesh] Sorry, continue.

- [Cheyenne] What line did you say?

- [Darrion] Is there any way to show such friendship?

- [Cheyenne] Very even way, but no such friends.

- [Rakesh] And it is frustrating for them too and I can see it, because they have to struggle.

But it's that struggle of struggling together to find what is it really, which is what Anne Bogart would always say to me.

It's like, what is it really?

So it's, what is it is on the page, but what is it really for each one of us in this moment of time where we are living with our life experiences?

It's finding that and how can then we create something out of it.

- [Cheyenne] Be a man for my sake.

But manhood is melted down into courtesy, valor, into compliment, and men are only turned into tongue- And men are only turned into tongue and trim ones too.

He is now as valiant as Hercules that only tells a lie and swears it.

I cannot be a man with wishing, therefore I will die a woman of grieving.

- So it's paraphrasing.

It's also just letting them play it different ways, creating modern characters, making a situation out of it, like, how would you do this?

If you were in this situation, what would you do?

And then they get conscious.

But it's not to...

It's just in service of finding something new and fresh because otherwise, why do a play if you can't find something new about it?

And which is great about Shakespeare, you always find something new because the dramatic situations are so human.

They're just very close to what human nature is.

- Or that I had any friend would be a man for my sake.

A manhood is melted into courtesy, valor, into compliment.

And men, men are only turned into tongue and trim.

Well, I cannot be a man with wishing, therefore I will die a woman with grieving.

- Hi, it's Jess here.

I play Margaret in "Much Ado."

And I just want to check in.

It was the final rehearsal tonight, so that means tomorrow is opening night, which is literally insane since we've been doing this for months now.

I'm just so excited to finally experience our first show.

We all put in so much hard work, the cast and crew, everyone who's helping out with the production.

And I'm so thankful to be surrounded by such great, dedicated people.

And I'm so ready to put on our first show tomorrow and all our shows for this weekend.

So, see you on opening night.

[slow piano music] - [Rakesh] You all know your movements, lines.

Now you can really make it alive.

You have an audience today for the first time and that's going to come to life, yeah?

So it's about making something come alive which is a very, very difficult thing.

It's almost an impossible task that is entrusted all to you.

So you shouldn't be worrying about where am I supposed go.

And you needn't because you all know when to come on and when to leave.

[slow piano music continues] In that moment with Benedick and Beatrice on the bench, you can take your time with the hand.

Let your hand be, you finish your line.

After he says it, weave your hand slow, really get in it, and this is you making it.

Take your time with it.

And then you look up into his eyes, and then you say the thing, yeah?

- [Cheyenne] The chairs are so slick and smooth that my hands are so sweaty that it sticks to the bench.

- [Rakesh] That's fine, that's fine.

[students laugh lightly] It's living in the moment, yeah?

It's really playing that intention of going for it, holding it, and then you look up at him, and you're like, "Kill Claudio."

And you need to feel that tension.

What we do is really hard.

Your tasked with creating life itself, at creating beauty.

And it's an impossible task.

But you do it and you will.

Just go out and live those lives of those characters for those moment, those situations, and live them truly.

And what we do in theater is also ephemeral.

Do you know the word "ephemeral?"

You perform something and it's gone.

Not like film where it stays or like a thing.

What you do in that one night is only that one night.

But you can live in the minds of those who see it forever.

It's like that one beautiful sunset or something that you might see and it stays with you.

And that is what you create.

You create something that can live with those people who see it that night forever.

So go live your lives and go in for that immortality, yeah?

[students applaud and cheer] [slow piano music continues] - I feel like we all knew what we were doing, but I feel like that's not where nervousness comes from.

You couldn't know everything that you're going to do.

You can have a whole plan for it and obviously know all your lines and stuff.

But you could still have that nervous energy.

I feel like mastering how to control that nervousness is a very important skill.

- It was very nerve-wracking, personally.

I was nervous.

I get really nervous before opening night.

I was nervous, but I had faith that we were gonna get through it together.

Whatever it was, we were gonna get through it together, and whatever we put out there was what it was, and we tried our best, we did everything that we could.

And you know, I'm very proud of what we put out.

[slow piano music continues] - Sometimes moments happen when it's really beautiful or something really real happens in rehearsal that when the audience was in for the first show, that's when you can really tell if a moment will work.

And I thought they were all alive on stage and it was a beautiful thing to see.

They were having fun as actors, but also just truly being in the moment or in this space that we'd created.

I thought they really lived in that world and they all looked like they were part of that world, which was a beautiful thing to see.

And they're masks off with the audience in.

Yeah, I was surprised when I was watching them because they were just alive.

And it's a very rare thing, even for professional actors, to be able to do that.

It's difficult because it's mechanical and you see it.

But to be really free and to really just live in the moment and go one to the next, to just have that short life, about 75 minutes.

It was beautiful.

The beautiful thing is when a scene is really working, you can, if you listen hard enough, you can feel the audience breathing together.

And when that happens, you know they're all together in this, in this thing that is happening live in front of you.

You can't capture that.

[slow piano music continues] - Come, come, we're friends.

Come, come, we're friends.

Friends, let's have a dance ere we are married now.

Let's have a dance ere we are married now that we may lighten our own hearts.

That we may lighten our own hearts.

That we may lighten our own hearts and our wives' heels.

- [Male Speaker] Can I get some music please?

[slow piano music continues] - I learned to take more risks.

- I learned that I can handle a more than I thought I could.

[slow piano music continues] - I learned how I enjoy communicating with people and how I like to bond with people, and acting is what I love.

And so it was really nice to make friends with people while I'm doing what I love.

- I've learned a lot about morality and what it means to be an adult because this program is designed to challenge these kids to rise to an adult level.

- I learned that I know what I'm doing, I can do this, and that I am good at it, and I need to realize that about myself.

- I was never very confident, and seeing my name under such a big part gave me so much hope.

And even just over these past four months, I slowly came to realize, no, I am worthy of the things that I have achieved.

- I have grown an insane amount here.

I've learned so much here.

And now this is the last time I get to do it.

So it was extremely bittersweet, but it was amazing.

I learned how a cast should build each other up and how we should support each other.

[piano music continues] - I always hope that our students grow as artists, gain confidence in their voices as artists.

So in something like this, their voice and their ideas about their characters and about the play itself are really valued and listened to and taken into consideration at all times.

So if they get confident in their voice as an artist, then that's huge.

If they create a family of... between the cast and the crew and everyone, if they find their people, then that's also a big goal.

I mean, when I was a kid, I went to the Pittsburgh Playhouse and I did shows there and that was my place.

And so we strive to create a place, that place, that home place for these students.

So if all those things happen and they realize that they are capable of amazing things that they didn't know that they could do before, I mean, what's better than that?

[piano music continues] [soft groovy music] ♪ We have exactly one, you see ♪ ♪ Bruised and scraped up knees ♪ ♪ Still we find our way ♪ ♪ And some come as quickly as they go ♪ ♪ Some choose better rows ♪ ♪ Still they find their way ♪ ♪ And God knows how hard it is to lose ♪ ♪ Pray to whichever one you choose ♪ ♪ Yeah, you will find your way ♪ [person shouting indistinctly] ♪ Na, na, na, we'll find our way ♪ ♪ Na, na, na, we'll find our way ♪