BFHS students doubly entertained
As a good ending of the week before spring break vacation, high school students were treated to not one, but two excellent performances on Thursday: “Shakespearience” and a talent show comprising entirely of students and teachers.
“Shakepearience”
is presented by the National Endowment for the
Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest to present
Shakespeare plays to a new generation of kids.The Idaho Shakespeare Festival is one of 42 professional theater companies selected to participate in Shakespeare for a New Generation, bringing the finest productions of Shakespeare to middle- and high-school students in communities across the United States.
Every year, BFHS high school students have the privilege of watching a Shakespeare play performed by a traveling troupe of professional actors. This year’s play was Shakespeare’s comedy “Much Ado about Nothing."
The play centers on Leanato, a nobleman, and his daughter Hero and niece Beatrice.
In the beginning of the play, Leanato’s friends Don Pedro, a prince, and two fellow soldiers, Claudio and Benedick, come home from war and are welcomed in Leanato’s home. Don John, Don Pedro’s illegitimate brother, is part of the crowd as well.
Don John is sullen and bitter and enjoys making trouble for others.
Claudio quickly falls in love with Hero. Meanwhile, Benedick and Beatrice resume their amusing war of witty insults that they have carried on with each other in the past. The pair really seems to hate each other.
In the meantime, Claudio and Hero decide to be married and to pass the time before their wedding, the lovers and their friends decide to play a game with Beatrice and Benedick by trying to make them fall in love with each other. The resulting affair is rather comic.
While events don’t necessarily run smoothly, the play does end happily, unlike some other Shakespeare plays.
To be able to connect better with teenage audiences, the plays are shortened down and language simplified so everyone can understand the plot. Plus, the actors wear more “modern” clothing and use rock music in between sets.
Many students expressed enjoyment of the play with some students saying that it was the best one they’d seen yet.
However, excitement remained for the talent show that was to start in the afternoon.
The talent show began with BFHS teachers Mr. Anderson, Mr. Bonnell, and Mr. Hanson on electric guitar; Mr. Cowley on drums, and Mr. Sanford on saxophone. The band, also known as “The Dinosaurs," played a few country tunes with guest singer “Berry” to warm people up for the rest of the show.
The following act consisted of Jesse Trocke singing the song “The A Team” while her brother, Christian, accompanied her on guitar. The audience was then amazed by some incredible dancing by duo Sahylee Ellson and Shaleyna Higgins. Brianna Via followed afterwards singing “Too Beautiful for Words.” Following act, senior Tyson Boorman, gave the audience some humor with his original song about his personal high school experience as he played piano.
Freshman students Cheyanne White and Michael Brooks sang a duet of the song “Fireflies.” After their performance, the audience had a feeling that the circus had come to town with Caelan Rapp on his unicycles.
He proved his exceptional skills by jumping over student Brandon Newson lying on the stage. Senior Brittany Shields, a talent show veteran, chose this year to sing Carrie Underwood’s “Blown Away.”
The teachers even joined in the fun with an interpretive dance as they dressed in different costumes and used props. It was hard to tell with all the commotion on stage, but rumor has it that Mrs. Delude and Mrs. Tucker were playing with hula hoops while jumping around in skirts, Mr. Knaggs rode his skateboard across the stage, Mr. Omodt galloped onwards on his stick horse, Mrs. Hall was sporting a feather boa and shaking a tambourine, and Mr. Arthur was waving around a banner like his life depended on it.
Even the janitor, Mr. Jimenez, busted some moves with his mop. Suffice to say, the students had fun seeing their teachers acting just a little bit goofy.
As announcers of all the performances, Mackenzie McDonald and Natalie Shelton filled in the gaps between acts by sharing jokes with the audience. Evan Moe and Kody Rice also briefly entertained the audience with a very short exhibition of a ping-pong game, which got a little crazy with the arrivals of Jared Lysne and Bradley Thompson.
Obviously neither Lysne nor Thompson knew how to play, as they preferred to aim the ping pong balls at their opponents rather than at the table.
After Rebekah Smith’s song “Jesus Take the Wheel," student Ryan De Franco wowed the audience with an impressive hip-hop style dance. To lighten the mood, students Bradley Thompson and Jared Lysne performed a very interpretive and slightly bizarre dance consisting of bathrobes, red velvet pants, pencils, exercise routines, and fanny pouches. While rather confused, the audience was well entertained.
Jacob Henson continued the show with his singing of “I Can Only Imagine” and senior Aaramie Hoisington showed off her juggling capabilities. The song “The A Team” must be popular right now, because student Rachel Wharton sang that song for her talent as well.
Another brother and sister team, Emily and Josh Berwick, performed with Josh on guitar and Emily singing “Sunday Morning.”
Then came the arrival of “Sydney and Crew” consisting of several students following along to Sydney Hubbard’s choreographed dancing. The song was "Thrift Shop” and the students on stage took the theme to heart by dancing around with shopping carts and wearing an interesting assortment of clothes that looked 70s and 80s inspired. The star leading it even wore a Michael Jackson-inspired outfit and hairdo.
Tony Compton, also a talent show veteran, ended the show by singing an original song with his own excellent composition on guitar.
Due to a little extra time, the Dinosaurs came out again and performed a few more songs as students filed out of the auditorium and went back to class, eagerly talking about the different talents they’d seen.