Bent Tree News

Shakespeare on the Green was held Saturday, October 13th from 1-4 p.m. in the quad here at Clayton State. It was the first event of the day to kick off the theme of “Supernatural Shakespeare”. Our own Dr. Gregory McNamara presented a video highlighting several different versions of the play “Hamlet.”

Following the presentation, the winners of the Shakespeare Sonnet contest were announced. Dr. Kathryn Pratt announced the high school winner and runner-ups first which included Celia Sullivan of Starr’s Mill High in 3rd place, Camille Byrd of Fayette High in 2nd place and Luke Leavitt of Dekalb School of Arts in 1st place.

The winner of Clayton State’s sonnet was Scott Roberts. Kristina Bjoran won second place and Helena Peace won 3rd place.

Following the announcement of the winning sonnet, Dr. Artese of Agnes Scott College lectured on Shakespeare’s supernatural characters and compared their identities between several plays.

The next item on the agenda was Clayton State’s Music Program directed by Dr. Kurt-Alexander Zeller, who is also Clayton State’s Opera Director. He acted as the historical coach for the singers including Christina Patterson who sang soprano, Katie Thackrey who also sang soprano, April Greenway a mezzo-soprano, Jose Caballero a tenor and Afolabi Giwa who sang baritone. The singers are all Clayton State students who are majoring in either music or voice performance.

Dr. Zeller and his students performed several ensembles of the Shakespearean era and he noted that the selections would have been sung during this period after dinner. Dr. Zeller explained that normally a group of five to seven singers would have historically been the proper number to have performed together

Continuing the mood of the event Dr. Pratt lead a group of students to perform Byron’s Manfred, a play with strange acting of spirits, sorcerers and devils. The reading began promptly at 3 p.m.

The cast entered the stage from behind a sheer black curtain adorned with black robes, cloaks, and black masks. The extraordinary cast of faculty and students included Ivan Segovia (First Spirit), Terri Worley (Second Spirit), Garry Hollowell (Third Spirit), Drew Hubbard (Nemesis), Jared Dyer (Manfred), Lacy Barnett (Arimanes), Lawanda Campbell (Astarte) and Helena Peace (the Abbess).

“We wanted to bring a feast of words and music to the Clayton State Community,” said Dr. Kathryn Pratt, publicity coordinator for the event. The event was sponsored by The Georgia Humanities Council, and was created to coincide with “Supernatural Shakespeare,” the play performed later in the evening.

Following the reading, Dr. Thomas P. Anderson, an English professor at Mississippi State University, delivered a lecture from his book “Performing Early Modern Trauma from Shakespeare to Milton.” He expressed his views on Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, and analyzed the ideas of sixteenth century author, John Foxx. “Execution is a spectator sport,” he claimed. “People look on as crime takes place,” he added.

Anderson, who was invited to attend the event by his friend from graduate school, Dr. Pratt, expects to release his book soon. The event successfully concluded with a serving of refreshments to all those in attendance.

Later in the evening in Spivey Hall, Clayton State’s Theater Department performed Supernatural Shakespeare, a play combining performances of different spirits and witches from Shakespeare’s plays. In keeping with the style of Byron’s Manfred, Clayton State’s theater students performed with great exaggeration and variation in their voices and movements. The performance was less than an hour long and held everyone’s attention the entire time. From the changing of the lights, to moaning and growling of the performers and fists pounding on the stage, the performers danced and acted just like Shakespeare’s characters in his plays. The audiences was captured by the astounding performance and applauded wildly to show their gratitude for a great evening.

The play was repeated November 29th and 30th in the Clayton State Theater. Along with a change of venue, these performances were done by an all-student cast. The stage allowed for a more dramatic staging and lighting that accentuated the play’s use of live scenery made up of posed cast members. Without any physical props, the cast members served as sometimes stationary, sometimes eerily creeping sculpture.

While not easily captured by photography, the three actresses who played the furies (Jennifer Larsen, Marie Banks and Lora Farmer) were especially impressive with their expressive physical and facial movements. Veteran student actors Brittany Loffert, Todd Denson, David Henry and Kimberly McCloud revealed hard won depth of character after years of acting. For Clayton senior Tony Berry, this last production was bittersweet as it likely signaled his retirement from the stage.

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