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June 26, 2004 - Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels May 5, 2004 Student puppets get into the act By Bill Choy Ashland Daily Tidings Carissa Mossman carefully put the clothing and hair on her hand puppet, preparing the finishing touches on her creation, which was just a Styrofoam ball, pieces of cloth and other material only a month ago. Soon, her puppet will become Titania, queen of the fairies. Lincoln School students Samantha Boehnke (left) and Claudia Eckert choose hair for their puppets in preparation for Monday's benefit performance of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Denise Baratta | Ashland Daily Tidings Carissa, 10, a 5th-grader in Lincoln Elementary School's 3rd- to 5th-grade Blender class, has worked since the end of February with her classmates to make their puppet production of William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" a reality. "We've never done anything like this before, so it's a challenge," she said. "It's hard to get the eyes and ears perfect with the material we have, but it's been fun. And after the play's done, we can bring our puppets home and be proud of ourselves." Thea Wayne, 11, agreed. "It makes me happy because the puppets are almost done," she said. "We have come a long way. They were just Styrofoam balls, and now the puppets are almost complete. I'm proud of myself and everyone else to get this done." For months, Shakespeare scholar and master puppeteer Rob Witt has worked with the Blender class and two 5th-grade classrooms at Lincoln on three separate puppet productions of the play. Each production is distinctly different, with the Blenders using a sea theme. The play begins on a yacht, and in place of an enchanted forest with Puck and his fellow fairies, it's in the ocean. And instead of turning into a donkey, Bottom becomes a seahorse. The Blenders will perform their production at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Carpenter Hall at 7 p.m. Monday night. Tickets are free, but donations will be collected for Whitney Chatfield, an Ashland High Student undergoing treatment for Hodgkin's lymphoma. Witt, a member of the Advancing Arts Education in Ashland committee, wanted to give students a chance to appreciate Shakespeare, theater and puppetry through these productions. Witt, who divides his time between Ashland and the San Francisco Bay Area is a member of the faculty of the American Conservatory Theatre's Youth Conservatory as the director of puppet theatre. He has done several Shakespeare productions using puppets. "Young people are not only capable of understanding Shakespeare, but of performing Shakespeare in such a simple and elegant way as to make the plays clear to other young people and to adults - perhaps sometimes for the first time," he said. "And, therefore, I believe that it is worth dignifying children by giving them the opportunity to perform without condescending to them." Witt has told the class he's "trying to make you relevant to Shakespeare. What I'm giving them is gold and showing them why Shakespeare is so influential," he said. "The students have been great. They are very enthusiastic and committed to do this right." The children, their parents and teachers have been hard at work making sets, puppets and rehearsing their lines for the production. Blender parent Diane Reeder has worked with the class on their puppets, and looked on with pride as students moved around the classroom, focused to get their puppets done. "It's wonderful for them to see what goes into producing a play," she said. "They will have more appreciation when they go to a play and will now understand the hard work and dedication it takes." While it's taken a lot of work to complete, the children are having a blast, she said. "They are like kids in a candy store," Reeder said. "It uses all their senses and is very three-dimensional. It's learning by doing." DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams