It is no secret that we at Shakespeare For Our Children love Halloween, the most theatrical holiday of all! There are many ways to celebrate with young actors: making trick-or-treating into a performance in itself; telling tales of haunted theatres; and even using the season as a time to think about bigger issues like stage fright.
Halloween is also an opportunity to put on a show, of course. In the past, we have worked on short productions that bring together eerie scenes in what we call “Shakespeare’s Haunted House.” Here, famous moments in plays like Macbeth (Macbeth’s encounter with the Three Witches, his “sound and fury” monologue) and Hamlet (the Prince of Denmark’s encounter with his ghostly father) allow young actors to explore the spectral side of Shakespeare’s work.
Keep the sets and costumes simple – have a look at some of the techniques we have used here. If you happen to put on the production in a home, you can really bring the “haunted house” to life! Perhaps stage scenes from one of the plays in your first room, and then guide your audience to another room for the next excerpts. In fact, you can write some brief contextual material for a ghostly narrator to share as they lead the audience from one space to another.
Planning the production itself – what scenes to choose, and why? – is also a terrific time to reflect on the deeper themes represented by the supernatural. Memory, regret, ambition – all of these are evoked in Shakespeare’s haunted characters, and all are worthy of discussion as the troupe prepares the performance. Happy Halloween!