Theater students at Hoffman Estates High School are bringing to life a show that is both hundreds of years in the making and a world premiere all at once. A Walk with the Bard was written and directed by Christina Ordonez, a former English teacher at the school and current Technology & Media Department Chair for District 211.
Angela Tomschin in a scene from A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Photos courtesy of HEHS)
The show opens at 7 p.m. Friday and continues at 7 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $10 for adults and $7 for children.
“This show is more than just a performance,” Ordonez says. “It’s a hands-on learning experience for our students.”
That’s because of the 22 cast members, 14 are making their debut, embracing Shakespeare as their first foray into traditional theater.
“This production has been about building skills and confidence, showing our students that they can connect with complex texts, and that characters, although written hundreds of years ago, are not that different from us today,” Ordonez says. “We still experience love, loss and friendship just as those about whom Shakespeare wrote.”
Since Ordonez is the technology chair, she tapped into ChatGPT as a thought partner to refine the dialogue, creating a unique blend of classic text and modern accessibility.
Odell Andrews recreates a scene from Hamlet
“We are the first K-12 district to partner with OpenAI,” Ordonez says “and so the opportunity to show our students how to use AI appropriately as a writer to refine rather than define their words was a lesson and an experience for them to take beyond the theatre.
“This approach has allowed our students to truly explore the richness of Shakespeare’s language in a way that’s both innovative and educational,” she adds. “Every theatrical element but the language has been minimized and modernized, so that the language and the story are the focus.”
Interestingly, Saint Viator High School director Megan Gray selected a Shakespeare classic, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, to stage as the school’s fall play. Gray said she selected this Shakespeare play for its multilayered themes and for its sheer fun for students. While they adapted the production with a more modern, country western theme, Shakespeare’s words remained the same.
“It’s just one of Shakespeare’s most classic and accessible pieces,” Ms. Gray says. “As we’ve never tackled Shakespeare as a group before, this felt like the natural entry point.”
In A Walk with the Bard, Ordonez strung together a series of sonnets, soliloquies and scenes as opposed to a full text. Scenes include those from Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Charlotte Lyons as the Bard
“The students have been partners in shaping their scenes,” Ordonez says, “as we dive into each story, determining blocking, tone, expressions, and voice that they feel best conveys to a modern audience what is happening,”
Ultimately, the Bard and the Bard’s friends walk the audience through different stories, seeing how the theme of Love can be explored in a variety of ways.
“In the end, we encourage the audience to understand that ‘… love, like stories, never truly ends. It grows, it changes, it lingers in the air long after the final words have been spoken,’ ” Ordonez says. “Each audience member ‘holds the power to shape the world around you with your words, your heart, your love, and your dreams.’ ”
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