Posted on: Monday, April 30, 2001

Teens find solace in Shakespeare

By Adam Gorlick
Associated Press

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — He killed to be king. And in the end, he was killed in revenge.

For the 15-year-old playing Claudius in a scene from Shakespeare's "Hamlet," the role was uncomfortably close to real life.

Convicted of assault and battery with a deadly weapon, Nate was among nine juvenile offenders sentenced to the stage by a judge.

"I thought this was stupid at first, and I thought I would quit," he said. "But I'm proud of myself. I've never done anything all the way through."

To quit or not to quit wasn't really an option. Participation was a mandatory part of probation for the Berkshire County teens.

"What happens with these kids tomorrow — who knows?" said Juvenile Court Judge Paul Perachi. "But at least we've given them the chance to see they can complete something. We've given them tools to communicate and hopefully to make better decisions."

The students' last names were not released and authorities would not allow their pictures to be taken because they are juveniles.

Thursday night's performance of 11 scenes from "Hamlet" was Perachi's way of dealing with something rotten in Berkshire County. He created the program with help from the Lenox-based Shakespeare & Co. theater troupe and a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The play was short on props; the swordfights and poisonings were mostly acted out with gestures. And the actors' princely robes and gravedigger rags could not conceal their sneakers and work boots.

For four hours a week over the past three months, the teen-agers worked with professional actors to practice lines, project their voices and build their confidence. Accomplishment, not the play, was the thing.

"This is not a pack of frightening delinquents," said co-director Jenna Wade, an actress with Shakespeare & Co. "They're just a bunch of kids. But what they're experienced at is failure, so it was hard for them to commit to something that they could have failed at again."

Despite their street-tough resumes, the teen-agers had opening-night jitters. One threw up before the show, and others got the giggles during the 30-minute performance. A few forgot their lines.

One worried that no one would show up. But there were about 150 people in the audience, made up of court officials, theater people and families.

"I was so nervous I couldn't breathe," said 16-year-old Rachele, who ended up in court after vandalizing property and running away from home.

For 15-year-old Maggy, the lines seemed to come easy. Playing the title character in one scene, she delivered her monologue like a rap.

"More than half of these kids failed English, and two of them can't even read," said Nancy Macauly, the teen-agers' probation officer. "But when they started seeing Shakespeare's language as a slang, they started warming up to it. They started seeing Shakespeare as a rebel, and that gave him credibility with them."