Erie Times-News
Published July 27, 2007
by Rachel Kaufman

All the world may be a stage, but these kids aren’t merely players.

There was acting, yes, but also the trying on of costumes, running amok in the theater, attending workshops and, at one point, drumming on the floor to illustrate Shakespearean meter.

It’s all part of the free ShakeXperience program, a new three-week “summer camp” at Gannon University that combined acting workshops with rehearsals of “Two Gentlemen of Verona.” The workshops end today, but the play continues through Saturday as part of Gannon’s Shakespeare Summer Nights festival.

And don’t worry, there are no men in tights here — the play’s been reimagined to take place in the 1950s, a suggestion from two of the students.

Organized by theater professors and Gannon graduates, ShakeXperience was conceived as a “page to stage” idea, looking at Shakespeare as a playwright, not as just a great wordsmith.

“I don’t mean to sound too noble, but it’s our passion,” Shawn Clerkin, Gannon theater director, said. “We’re committed to the notion of theater having the ability to change lives.”

Read the rest of this story on GoErie.com, or contact me for more.