Oregon Shakespeare Festival provides workshop at MCHS

Students at Mariposa County High School were treated to a special performance last week in the Fiester Auditorium.

Leianna Weaver and Tiago Santos from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Education group visited the school to share a their performance of “Light of Truth” before leading a workshop for Brooke Dobson’s sophomore honors English class.

The duo was in the middle of a six week stint providing performances and workshops to schools in Idaho, Nevada, Washington, Oregon and California, among others.

“We want to introduce kids to live theater and performance,” Weaver said.

“It’s about getting them out of their shells and thinking outside the box,” said Santos.

During the workshop, Santos and Weaver explained they would be working with words and the art of persuasion as well as references to Shakespeare and how he was “good with using words.”

Some of the topics discussed with students were pathos, ethos and logos.

When asked about the meaning of pathos, one student explained, “it’s about emotion and dealing with the heart.”

Ethos is based around “credibility,” Santos said.

“We know when it comes to the medical field, washing hands is credible.”

For logos, another student said, “It’s based around logic and factual based reasoning.”

Santos’ example was, “If one in 10 people have diabetes, let’s cap the cost of insulin.”

The class then participated in an activity where Weaver read phrases out loud and students would decide if the elements of ethos, pathos and logos were present and how.

Next, the group moved on to an activity called rhetoric trivia.

“Shakespeare used rhetoric and he was a master of this,” Santos said.

“Rhetoric is the art of persuasion; it’s the art of words and how you use them.”

The class divided into groups and students were tasked with speaking and acting out certain phrases and statements, followed by discussion about what they learned.

“Physicalizing things helps you to understand the language more,” one student said.

“It shows each sentence and each word has meaning.”

Santos challenged to group to watch throughout their daily lives on how rhetoric is used today through things like TikTok, Instagram, TV and movies.

“Think about it and really think about what people are trying to say to you.”

The final activity of the workshop was utilizing different ways to say lines while also using your body.

Students were challenged to say lines while only using their arms and legs, as well as using long fluid movements and short, abrupt tones.

Some other aspects were speaking as high pitched or low pitched as possible, emphasizing vowels or speaking as if your telling a secret or trying to tell someone across town.

“The movements give it a whole different meaning,” a student said.

“It’s a whole different way to interpret it.”

Another student explained “it was funnier this way and it gives phrases different emotions.”

Weaver emphasized “how we say something can change the entire meaning.”

These types of workshops and activities are not only about theater and live performance, but also to educate on things such as the use of words, self awareness, communication and preparation.

“I hope you all are taking mental notes on this,” Dobson explained.

“This is to help prepare you for the Poetry Out Loud competition you’ll be working on.”

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s School Visit Program brings live performances and workshops to schools to educate and entertain students in a way that inspires appreciation for theatre and literature.

For more information about the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, visit www.osfashland.org