Last August
she and the Short Shakespeareans were feted at a gala silver-anniversary
celebration in the Wenatchee Convention Center, along with current
and former cast members. One wall of the large banquet room was
lined with two dozen placards, each featuring cast and candid
photos for each year.
Schreck draws
on the creative talents of hundreds of people—set builders,
costume makers, painters, and promoters. She’s witnessed
the rapport that has developed among involved families. She knows
of no other children’s drama troupe in the country that
is more developed or counts as many consecutive years as hers.
“Once
you get involved with Sherry Schreck and her Short Shakespeareans,
you are in it for life,” says John Renn, a set designer-builder
who has volunteered his time from the beginning.
Schreck was inspired by her mentors at Washington State University
during the 1960s. Janice Miller taught speech, coached the debate
team, and directed Readers’ Theater.
Bruce Anawalt taught Shakespeare for 36 years. Ed Vandivort, Bud Carlson, and
Paul Wadleigh helped shape her life in the dramatic arts. Wadleigh founded
WSU’s Summer Palace Theatre in 1966, and that year cast her in the lead
in East Lynne.
From Miller
and Anawalt, Schreck gained her appreciation of Shakespeare.
Long after she graduated from WSU (’68 Speech, ’71
M.A. Speech), both mentors continued to follow her career. They
attended the gala and the play in August.
A Midsummer
Night’s Dream opens with the anticipation of a wedding
festival in the Palace of Theseus, Athens. But conflict is
at the core, too. Hermia refuses to marry Demetrius. She is
smitten instead by the gallant young Lysander. The two lovers
decide to elope. The ending is raucous. The spirit world infringes
upon the mortal world—and wins. All of the seasons are
in disorder. Pranks are played on the lovers and the workmen
by elves and fairies.
“The
children are completely into the spirit of it,” Anawalt
said after watching the performance. “They create a world
that is real to them while they are doing it.”
Instead of
looking for the absolutely right way of interpreting scripts,
Schreck and the children find what works. “We tap into
our own imagination.”
She wants
the children to “loosen their tent pegs and widen their
perspective—to have them open themselves up to new ideas
and approaches to acting out the scene.”
At the end
of one scene in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, two
little fairies give each other “high fives” before
exiting the stage with happy smiles. Shakespeare allows the director
to make modifications in the staging “to fit the age of
the actors,” says Schreck.
Her daughter,
Heidi Schreck, one of the original Short Shakes, remembers early
performances as “a chance to be silly and have your parents
think you were doing something wonderful.” Since then,
she’s gone on to perform in Seattle and New York. Other
Short Shakes are in Hollywood, have appeared on television and
in movies, and performed with the Shakespearean companies in
Ashland and Berkeley.
The creative
action of the play, the blocking, hand gestures, and usage of
props are things that she really works at, says Sherry Schreck.
She remembers struggling to develop a lesson plan to use for Romeo
and Juliet at Eastmont Junior High in 1978. That summer
she attended a workshop at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and
was taken by two elementary students performing a scene from
The Taming of the Shrew.
“Everything
just clicked,” she says. “I knew I wanted that experience
for my own children.” Back home, she worked on scripts,
dyed wigs, made headdresses, and then directed Heidi and a few
friends in a couple of short scenes. The kids were hooked. So
was their director.
WSM
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