On a rainy summer afternoon, when most children are camped out in front of the television playing Nintendo or watching videos, the Young Shakespeare Players are rehearsing for a full-length performance of Hamlet at the Anshe Emet School on Pine Grove. As the infamous prince of Denmark, Rosanna Orfield, a pretty blond 15-year-old, sinks to the floor, and Reina Hardy, a diminutive Horatio, kneels beside her. “Now cracks a noble heart,” Reina says, her voice expanding with melancholy. “Goodnight, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to rest.”
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It was on this premise that DiPrima created the Young Shakespeare Players program ten years ago in Madison, Wisconsin, and started the Chicago chapter upon moving here four years ago. DiPrima runs summer Shakespeare programs both here and in Madison, and he offers different workshops during the school year. He also runs his own consulting business, and is completing work for his doctorate in clinical psychology. But working with the Shakespeare kids is his favorite job.
The program runs almost exclusively on its own fuel. Performances are free, and there are no government grants or funding; contributions and small-merchant advertising in play programs keep it alive. A small tuition is charged, but scholarships are offered to children not able to afford it.
The young actors and actresses seem equally enthusiastic. “Richard’s great,” says Corina Delman intensely. “After doing this for the last four summers, I can read anything by Shakespeare.”
The rehearsal is drawing to a finish and parents are trickling into the auditorium, collecting their various offspring. The children gather in small groups, giggling and talking, brightly colored knapsacks slung over their shoulders. There is an occasional scream of delight as an impromptu game of tag breaks out. The Young Shakespeare Players are just being kids right now, but in each of them is a small piece of permanence and beauty called Shakespeare.
