BFHS students doubly entertained
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March 29, 2012 |
By Sally Balcaen
As a good ending of the week before spring break
vacation, high school students were treated to
not one, but two excellent performances on
Thursday: “Shakespearience” and a talent show
comprising entirely of students and teachers.
 “Shakepearience”
is presented by the National Endowment for the
Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest to present
Shakespeare plays to a new generation of kids.
The Idaho Shakespeare Festival is one of 42
professional theater companies selected to
participate in Shakespeare for a New Generation,
bringing the finest productions of Shakespeare
to middle- and high-school students in
communities across the United States.
Every year, BFHS high school students have the
privilege of watching a Shakespeare play
performed by a traveling troupe of professional
actors. This year’s play was Shakespeare’s
comedy “Much Ado about Nothing."
The play centers on Leanato, a nobleman, and his
daughter Hero and niece Beatrice.
In the beginning of the play, Leanato’s friends
Don Pedro, a prince, and two fellow soldiers,
Claudio and Benedick, come home from war and are
welcomed in Leanato’s home. Don John, Don
Pedro’s illegitimate brother, is part of the
crowd as well.
Don John is sullen and bitter and enjoys making
trouble for others.
Claudio quickly falls in love with Hero.
Meanwhile, Benedick and Beatrice resume their
amusing war of witty insults that they have
carried on with each other in the past. The pair
really seems to hate each other.
In the meantime, Claudio and Hero decide to be
married and to pass the time before their
wedding, the lovers and their friends decide to
play a game with Beatrice and Benedick by trying
to make them fall in love with each other. The
resulting affair is rather comic.
While events don’t necessarily run smoothly, the
play does end happily, unlike some other
Shakespeare plays.
To be able to connect better with teenage
audiences, the plays are shortened down and
language simplified so everyone can understand
the plot. Plus, the actors wear more “modern”
clothing and use rock music in between sets.
Many students expressed enjoyment of the play
with some students saying that it was the best
one they’d seen yet.
However, excitement remained for the talent show
that was to start in the afternoon.
The talent show began with BFHS teachers Mr.
Anderson, Mr. Bonnell, and Mr. Hanson on
electric guitar; Mr. Cowley on drums, and Mr.
Sanford on saxophone. The band, also known as
“The Dinosaurs," played a few country tunes with
guest singer “Berry” to warm people up for the
rest of the show.
The following act consisted of Jesse Trocke
singing the song “The A Team” while her brother,
Christian, accompanied her on guitar. The
audience was then amazed by some incredible
dancing by duo Sahylee Ellson and Shaleyna
Higgins. Brianna Via followed afterwards singing
“Too Beautiful for Words.” Following act, senior
Tyson Boorman, gave the audience some humor with
his original song about his personal high school
experience as he played piano.
Freshman students Cheyanne White and Michael
Brooks sang a duet of the song “Fireflies.”
After their performance, the audience had a
feeling that the circus had come to town with
Caelan Rapp on his unicycles.
He proved his exceptional skills by jumping over
student Brandon Newson lying on the stage.
Senior Brittany Shields, a talent show veteran,
chose this year to sing Carrie Underwood’s
“Blown Away.”
The teachers even joined in the fun with an
interpretive dance as they dressed in different
costumes and used props. It was hard to tell
with all the commotion on stage, but rumor has
it that Mrs. Delude and Mrs. Tucker were playing
with hula hoops while jumping around in skirts,
Mr. Knaggs rode his skateboard across the stage,
Mr. Omodt galloped onwards on his stick horse,
Mrs. Hall was sporting a feather boa and shaking
a tambourine, and Mr. Arthur was waving around a
banner like his life depended on it.
Even the janitor, Mr. Jimenez, busted some moves
with his mop. Suffice to say, the students had
fun seeing their teachers acting just a little
bit goofy.
As announcers of all the performances, Mackenzie
McDonald and Natalie Shelton filled in the gaps
between acts by sharing jokes with the audience.
Evan Moe and Kody Rice also briefly entertained
the audience with a very short exhibition of a
ping-pong game, which got a little crazy with
the arrivals of Jared Lysne and Bradley
Thompson.
Obviously neither Lysne nor Thompson knew how to
play, as they preferred to aim the ping pong
balls at their opponents rather than at the
table.
After Rebekah Smith’s song “Jesus Take the
Wheel," student Ryan De Franco wowed the
audience with an impressive hip-hop style dance.
To lighten the mood, students Bradley Thompson
and Jared Lysne performed a very interpretive
and slightly bizarre dance consisting of
bathrobes, red velvet pants, pencils, exercise
routines, and fanny pouches. While rather
confused, the audience was well entertained.
Jacob Henson continued the show with his singing
of “I Can Only Imagine” and senior Aaramie
Hoisington showed off her juggling capabilities.
The song “The A Team” must be popular right now,
because student Rachel Wharton sang that song
for her talent as well.
Another brother and sister team, Emily and Josh
Berwick, performed with Josh on guitar and Emily
singing “Sunday Morning.”
Then came the arrival of “Sydney and Crew”
consisting of several students following along
to Sydney Hubbard’s choreographed dancing. The
song was "Thrift Shop” and the students on stage
took the theme to heart by dancing around with
shopping carts and wearing an interesting
assortment of clothes that looked 70s and 80s
inspired. The star leading it even wore a
Michael Jackson-inspired outfit and hairdo.
Tony Compton, also a talent show veteran, ended
the show by singing an original song with his
own excellent composition on guitar.
Due to a little extra time, the Dinosaurs came
out again and performed a few more songs as
students filed out of the auditorium and went
back to class, eagerly talking about the
different talents they’d seen. |
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