One of the great things about living in New York City is that we have the opportunity to do things that many people wouldn’t get to do anywhere else; for example, a free week-long immersion into Shakespeare run by the professionals behind Shakespeare in the Park.

This was my second summer doing Shakespeare Lab Jr., and I wondered how it would be compared to last year.  This five-day program held at the Public Theater on Lafayette Street is aimed at the same people who are part of High 5: teens (13-19) living in the five boroughs.

Last year I was put in the 8th/9th grade group, but this year I was going to be in the 10th/11th/12th grade group, and I worried it would be more intense.  It was in a different studio, and with none of the same people as last year, but some teens had done it before, as I had.

The workshop includes learning about a Shakespeare play and its characters, doing theater warm-ups/games, and focusing on sonnet writing and structure.  At the end of the week, parents are invited to a presentation. This year, we performed a few scenes from The Winter’s Tale, and competed with the parents to see who could reconstruct a sonnet that had been cut apart, line-by-line.  It is a testament to the instructors that we teens easily beat our parents.

Two perks to this program (in addition to the five day course) include two tickets to a Shakespeare in the Park play (this year, The Winter’s Tale) without waiting in line, and the opportunity to go to Summer Shake Up, a one day event in the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park that is a mash-up of all things Shakespeare.

A nice thing about this program is that it is not intimidating.  All Public School teens are welcome, and there are no auditions, interviews, or statements necessary.  You don’t have to know anything about Shakespeare or theater to join.  And, you get to know great people who love theater.  You end up spending almost a full day (20 hours) with these people, so by the end you know everyone really well and can remember all of their names.

Although the sessions for this summer are over, I look forward to doing it all again next year, and I would recommend it to any teen that might be at all interested in learning more about Shakespeare.  Something I have realized since participating the past two years is that, although you grow up hearing about Shakespeare as a kind of super-academic subject, in reality he was the popular culture of his time, complete with many of the same themes and humor that we enjoy today.

Run by Jess Zweiman, Shakespeare Lab Jr. has two sessions, and you pick either a morning or an afternoon class. Registration for next year will be online this spring.