As You Like It by Deirdre

As You Like It by Deirdre - March 2023 Scholarship Essay

One of the mothers who participates in my Shakespeare productions. (For the sake of this essay I am going to call her “E”) She has only been a part of my life the last few years, but she has become a great friend.
I had my first experience teaching and directing Shakespeare to a group of kids aged three to seventeen. We had four months of rehearsals and then we performed a very amateur rendition of A Midsummer Night's Dream. The next year I got to do a production of Hamlet. I consider that production to be thus far the pinnacle of my high school education. I can honestly say that I have never felt more proud of myself and my cast than I did at the end of our performance. At every one of our weekly rehearsals there would be at least one moment of pure joy as I watched someone memorize something, or understand what a line meant, or simply say "Shakespeare is awesome!"
E was an absolute powerhouse during the production of Dream; even though her family joined late in the process, she helped with makeup and hair, props, memorizing, and attended rehearsals just to help out. And then to top it all off, she offered to film the performance and opened her home up to us for the cast party.
During the time I was directing Hamlet I didn't feel confident in my ability to pull off Shakespeare's biggest play. E encouraged me and told me that I had a real talent for teaching and engaging people in Shakespeare. My decision to aspire to teaching was after she told me I should consider continuing to teach Shakespeare after high school and college.