Bully for you

The Bard and bullying may seem like strange bedfellows, but in the hands of the Shakespeare Festival St. Louis Education Touring Company, the pairing makes perfect sense.

Rather than just introduce students to William Shakespeare, which is an important part of its mission, the touring company also wants youngsters to understand that themes Shakespeare incorporated into his plays back in the 16th century are still relevant today.

Enter “Cruel to be Kind,” a new 50-minute play which centers on bullying. It was inspired by Shakespeare but written by Chris Limber, the festival’s director of education. Set in the year 1599, it opens with Shakespeare furiously at work on his new play “As You Like It,” which contains several characters who torment and intimidate. Shakespeare uses these characters during a rehearsal of “As You Like It” to enlighten one of his young apprentices, Ozwaldo, who is a terrible bully himself. Through Oz’s journey and throughout the play, the student audience is exposed to several types of bullies and their menacing behavior.

Typically, an hour-long “Bullies & Boundaries” workshop occurs soon after the play where members of the touring company and students discuss options to deal with bullies. They role-play pretending to be the bully and the bullied as well as the bystander who witnesses the activity. Empowering bystanders to report or to diffuse the situation is as important as understanding the behaviors and motivation that lead to bullying in the first place, Limber notes. He also distributes a resource guide and exercises to teachers so they can continue the discussion and address concerns with students after the actors depart.

Last week, the touring company performed “Cruel to be Kind” before the entire student body at Solomon Schechter Day School. The children – including the six-year-olds – sat riveted as they listened to prose that was very different from everyday speak, but engaging nonetheless. Afterwards, instead of the bullying workshop, a question-and-answer session ensued.

Hands erupted, as nearly all of the questions focused on the mechanics of this particular play as well as performing Shakespeare in general. “How long did it take to learn your lines?” “How do you fight on stage without hurting each other?” “What’s your favorite Shakespeare play?”

Interestingly, the bullying theme never came up. Limber said the actors could have steered the conversation that way, but chose to let the youngsters, who had no shortage of queries, ask what they wanted. Then again, it’s possible the whole notion of bullying eluded the first, second and third graders and isn’t of pressing concern to the sixth, seventh and eight graders at Schechter. And maybe that’s a good thing.

Actress Elana Kepner, who portrays Landlady Bundle in “Cruel,” said students often ask why her character is so mean to her daughter. “We talk about how Mrs. Bundle is stuck in a role (of landlady) that she probably didn’t enjoy and took it out on her daughter,” says Kepner. “Through the workshop, we are able to make the point that bullying doesn’t just take place on the playground. It can happen at home. Teasing younger siblings can be another form of bullying. Sometimes we hear kids say they feel as if their parents are bullying them.”

By May, after three months of non-stop touring at dozens of St. Louis area private and public schools, these actors will have performed before more than 26,000 students, including the entire freshman class of 1,600 students at the Hazelwood School District. In conversations with Limber and the actors as well as some students and teachers, it’s clear that “Cruel to be Kind” is making a strong impression, be it introducing the Bard’s language to youngsters otherwise unfamiliar, or drawing connections and comparisons between situations then and now, or both.

Bravo to all those involved for furthering the relevance of Shakespeare’s words and the power of live performance, especially in this modern era when arts funding is being threatened from all sides.  At least in this case, all’s well that ends well.

“PhDs” or “clearance sale”

Of these four words or phrases, which seems “The Most Jewish” to you: “Garment District,” “hard boiled eggs,” “compost” or “Saturday Night Live”? Bear in mind, there is no right answer – it’s whichever of the four choices resonates as most Jewish to you.

Such is the thinking behind a new Internet game recently launched by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RCC). Players can go to www.mostjewish.com where they will see four words or phrases. They click on the one that feels the most Jewish to them and find out the percentage of other players who selected the same term. Then, they can explain the reason for their choice as well as discuss the game on Facebook and follow it on Twitter.  The site also offers a constantly updated “Top Ten list” of choices and allows players to see all comments on the choices.

I played for a while and found it pretty addicting. Oh yes, all this fun is free of charge.

Schmooze and lose

The eight-week Lighten Up Weight Loss Challenge, sponsored by the Jewish Light and the JCC, officially ended Sunday. Next week (issue of March 23), the Light will carry a full story about the team and individual winners, but here’s some of the skinny :

The top three teams that lost the most weight were “Frasier” followed by “All in the Family” and “Mork & Mindy. Members of the Frasier team are: Shawn Duggan, Virginia Panzitta, Patti Randazzo and Lori Schuman. They worked out with personal trainer Brandon Patek two days a week at the Marilyn Fox building. “Frasier” lost 9.878 percent of their full body weight and a total of 63.4 pounds for the contest.

Second place team “All in the Family” lost the most team weight with 111.6 pounds.

All 98 participants in the challenge lost a combined 1,421.2 pounds.