Much ado about Palmer: Teens tackle Shakespeare

By ANDREW WELLNER

Frontiersman.com

PALMER — Downstairs at Palmer High School Tuesday it’s relatively quiet.

Actually, it’s very quiet. The place is empty save for a few chairs.

But then the theater doors open up and a dozen kids in pantaloons and blouses, ball gowns and masquerade masks pour through the doors. Some maintain their Shakespearean diction as they inform their colleagues they’re headed backstage or upstairs.

They all seem to be enjoying it, but then they’ve been living with this for eight weeks of studying lines and running rehearsals. Is Shakespeare hard for high schoolers?

“Oh yes,” Palmer High School music teacher and play director Stan Harris said. “The volume of dialogue and unfamiliar speech patterns is difficult.”

But, he said, one way to get kids into The Bard is to pick a comedy. That’s why you’ll often see high schools doing “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” or, in this case, “Much Ado About Nothing.”

“It presents situations that they’re familiar with,” Harris said.

It seems to have worked, at least if you talk to cast members like Mariah Lamb, a junior who will be playing Beatrice.

“She’s very witty and sarcastic and cynical. I can relate to that,” she said.

This will be her second play at Palmer High. She said she loves it.

“I enjoy performing in front of an audience and making them laugh,” she said.

Cody White said he also loves acting.

“It’s been a blast,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to play a villain.”

White is playing Don John, who slanders Hero and generally dislikes his brother, the prince of Aragon he once tried to overthrow.

“He’s just kind of an angry guy,” White said.

Later, he said he’ll enjoy inhabiting the role and joked that maybe he’ll scare some small children. That’s when Zack Hardy showed up, fake goatee in place.

“I only heard ‘scare small children,’” he said, laughing.

Hardy plays Benedick.

“He’s the sarcastic sidekick,” Hardy said. “He thinks he’s smarter than everyone.”

Hardy, who’s been in a few plays during his time at PHS, said what he likes most is the backstage stuff.

“Every time I do a play I meet new people,” he said. And a lot of them become friends. “Facial hair is a bonus.”

Emily Yannatone, who plays Hero, also said she loves the play.

“Hero is the sweet little innocent daughter that kind of gets slandered,” she said.

Yannatone has been in a lot of plays, but this is her first since she came to Palmer High School. She’s been in “Annie,” “The Music Man,” “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” and “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.”

“I like it because you get to be a whole different character,” she said about acting.

Which is exactly what Sterling Maffe likes about the show. Sterling plays Claudio, a soldier and a count and Hero’s love interest.

“I enjoy being Claudio. It’s different than anything I’ve ever done before,” Maffe said. Claudio’s kind of a straight man. It’s a dramatic part in the comedic play. Usually, Maffe said, he plays comedic roles. “I like getting into all the different characters and creating a personality for them all.”

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.

What: William Shakespeare’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing’

Where: Palmer High School Theater

When: March 1, 2, 7, 8 and 9

at 7 p.m.

Cost: $10 for adults, $7 for students