Drama Club to Tackle Shakespeare

"Wherein our entertainment shall shame us we will be justified in our loves" is one of the opening lines to William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, a play the North Andover High School Drama Club -- formerly known as the Drama Guild -- will preform in November at the annual Fall Festival of Shakespeare in Lenox.

North Andover High School is the only eastern Massachusetts school participating in the nine-week residency program in which students will be instructed by Shakespeare & Company actors in the language and themes of Shakespeare.

At the end, the North Andover High School Drama Club students will go to Lenox for the Fall Festival of Shakespeare and perform a live play for the public on Shakespeare & Company's Founders' Theatre Mainstage. Their performances are scheduled for Nov. 12, 13 and 14.

Shakespeare & Company has operated in the Berkshires for 32 years, celebrating classical Elizabethan performance methods and forming collaborations between actors, directors and designers who share a love for Shakespeare.

The company also focuses on training young people in Shakespeare and classical theater, which is where its Fall Festival of Shakespeare comes in to play (pun intended; Shakespeare loved puns). North Adnover High School has been involved with Shakespeare & Company for nearly 20 years.

The North Andover High School Drama Club Friends is the parent fundraising arm of the Drama Guild. They are vigorously trying to raise money for the students to perform in the festival. The cost for the Drama Guild students to go is $20,000. This is to pay for the professional actors who train the students as well as the trip to Lenox and the high costs involved with producing a play.

The Drama Guild and the Drama Guild friends collaborate on raising funds for this the program by direct donations, fundraisers, ad sales, ticket sales and concessions. Contact Drama Guild President Wendi Roy at wendi.roy.1@comcast.net for more information on how to donate.

The Drama Guild Friends are also looking for volunteers. Since volunteers would have to be working with schools, they will be subject to background checks.