—William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night

No matter how you slice it, the teens in the Festival Theatre Ensemble Conservatory Program have stumbled onto something great and, in turn, are shining brightly.

Instead of sleeping in, the six students are up every Saturday morning clanging swords and dishing out Shakespearean monologues with natural ease and active interest.

Leading the conservatory is FTE founder and artistic director Bruce De Les Dernier, who guides the students through nearly five hours of Elizabethan dance, stage combat and Shakespeare every Saturday from June 7 to July 27.

"The kids are doing great and are very excited," De Les Dernier says. "I'm amazed by their acting and their experience with Shakespeare. Kudos to these schools that are giving the opportunity for kids to be in Shakespeare."

Although De Les Dernier is directing two of the productions for the Los Gatos Shakespeare Festival this season and starring in another, he readily offers up his time to host this program, as do his lead actors, who also help coach the students. "It's a natural extension of what we do," he says. "Our philosophy is that we bring the company to the community and bring as much as we can. We think of Los Gatos as our home base, and so we want to be involved with the community as much as possible. Every company has a responsibility to provide education and to make Shakespeare accessible."

Auditions for conservatory spots were held in late spring, with hopefuls reading prepared pieces and going through an interview process. De Les Dernier says the company wanted to "pick the six that we knew we could take to the next level." It was just a happy coincidence that the six they chose represented five local schools. "We like to represent all the local schools, but we don't require it," he says.

The students selected were junior Gregg Aronica of Westmont High School, sophomore Julia Coe and senior Valerie Farnum of Saratoga, sophomore Annalisa Giardina of Leigh, freshman Jane Goldsmith of Los Gatos, and Eric Kubo of Pioneer, who will be attending Yale University in fall.

As part of the program, all students participate in a dance and combat segment and perform one or two monologues in addition to a two-person scene.

"For their monologues, we cast the kids from villains to clowns. We try to avoid traditional roles like Juliet and find obscure parts to serve them better at auditions," De Les Dernier says. "They get a lot of coaching here, and these kids are going to have a polished monologue that they can keep fresh in their back pocket. They'll be a notch ahead of most of the competition."

But in terms of in-house competition, none can be found.

"I like that it's not competitive," says Farnum, who is a returning participant. "You get to learn the stuff while all working together."

Photograph by Saori Yoneda Valerie Farnum (left) of Saratoga revels in sword sparring with partner Jane Goldsmith of Los Gatos during combat rehearsal.

"There are a lot of instances when actors are asked to use weapons, and we teach them when to recognize that a weapon is not safe for the stage," De Les Dernier says. "Stage combat is like learning magic—it's all a trick, all an illusion. We teach how that is all done so when you get to the stage it looks real but no one is hit."

De Les Dernier, who frequently stops combat lessons to ensure proper hand movement and distance, says the most dangerous weapon is one that breaks. As such, FTE only uses weapons made of French or Spanish spring steel and avoids any device that is welded, is missing a weighted handle, or does not have a blade running through the handle.

To drive home his point, De Les Dernier stopped in the midst of one combat session to show a slight scar over his right eye, the result of using a fencing foil for a fight scene—an item that should never be used due to its elasticity.

The only element missing from the combat sessions is Elizabethan gender politics. The girls in the program are given equally prominent roles and are taught all elements of combat. "We have women fight every chance we get," De Les Dernier says.

"I'm liking the swords," says returning student Giardina with a grin.

"The stage combat is really fun," Farnum agrees, "although I think I like the hand-to-hand combat more than the sword fighting."

FTE actor Morgan Cox helps De Les Dernier with combat lessons in addition to coaching acting. As a recent addition to the ensemble, he is still learning the ropes of repertory theater and is delighted to learn fighting techniques along with conservatory students.

"What they're learning now I didn't learn until a week ago. That's how good they are. This inspires me to go back home and start something to give back to the kids that were like me in high school—hungry, just starving for this stuff," he says.

Photograph by Saori Yoneda Conservatory students practice leg movements used in Morris scarf dancing. Once the students learn the necessary steps, they begin practicing with the traditional bell belts attached to their calves.

"The program gives us a chance to learn more about theater, and it helps us to become better with Shakespearean dialect. They give us lots of feedback and help us build our monologues," Aronica says. "And then there's the stage combat, which is always fun."

Goldsmith, who at 13 is the youngest of the group yet has ample Shakespeare experience, particularly enjoys the combat. "It's really fun learning all the pretend moves and learning how to make them look real," she says.

"It's a lot of fun," Kubo says. "I have no inhibitions whatsoever anymore. I've had to do so many stupid things. Basically, you learn to be able to go out there and not worry about how something looks because it's not you—it's someone else."

Farnum and Giardina, who have become close friends since attending the program last year, believe this year's training is very fun but more rigorous.

"Especially the dancing," Giardina says. "It's like four minutes of hard aerobics." She also says the acting requirement is more complex.

"That means we're growing," Farnum interjects jokingly, making Giardina smile. "They just have expectations now."

The dance selected for this year is Morris scarf dancing, a highly popular dance of the Elizabethan era that doubled as a sport. The dance would traditionally be performed outside, and villages would compete against one another. It is very athletic, with lots of jumping in order to jangle the bells attached to the lower leg.

To help with the dance segment, De Les Dernier recruited Bill Batty, who heads the Faultline Morris Dancers in Hayward. Although Batty has been studying Morris dancing for nine years, he says he has only begun to learn. "They say it takes seven years to birth a Morris dancer, so I'm still a toddler," he says.

Photograph by Saori Yoneda Bruce De Les Dernier is known to his theater troupe as 'Mr. Safety.'

In talking about the conservatory program and his students, it is obvious how much passion De Les Dernier has for the young actors. The only rival to such ardor is his love of Shakespeare.

De Les Dernier shows this devotion through his method of scanning, which is employed by the entire ensemble. Scanning is done by reading the text line by line, marking where the focus is in each word, as defined by Shakespeare's requisite 10-syllable lines.

"The way it is written, you can almost hear Shakespeare coach you," he says. "This way Shakespeare had of writing to reflect emotion and character is frighteningly amazing. It's almost a religion to us."

Ensemble actors agree that scanning affords a better understanding of the text and helps budding actors take the requisite time with the lines, even if they already know Shakespearean language well.

"Once they know the lines, they want to rush through them," Cox says, admitting he was fond of that himself through acting school. "So I try to show them that it's OK to languish in the words, because they are great words—the best words ever written. You want them to feel that it's a real treat to say these words and live in these characters, because it is."

Shakespeare festival is returning to Los Gatos

This summer the Los Gatos Shakespeare Festival will be held at Oak Meadow Park, located on the corner of Blossom Hill Road and University Avenue in Los Gatos. Performances will include The Taming of the Shrew, King Richard III and The Adventures of Cyrano!, a comic adaptation written by De Les Dernier for young audiences.

The festival opens on July 11 and runs through July 27, with all shows beginning at 8 p.m.

Richard III will be performed on July 11, 20 and 26. The Taming of the Shrew will be performed on July 12, 18 and 27. Cyrano! will be performed on July 13, 19, 24 and 25.

The conservatory performance will take place at 6 p.m. on July 27 as part of a closing night celebration.

Tickets for each show are $15 general admission and $10 for children and seniors. To order tickets, call 408.996.0635 or email tickets@festivaltheatreensemble.org.


Shakespeare for kids

As an addition to the Los Gatos Shakespeare Festival, FTE is presenting The Shakespeare Connection: Monsters & Clowns on July 12 at Hotel Los Gatos, located at 210 E. Main St.

Monsters & Clowns is an energetic, 50-minute introduction to theater designed for elementary school­aged children. FTE actors perform and interact with the children, teaching them Shakespearean vocabulary words and introducing them to quirky characters.

The presentation is free and will begin at 10 a.m. on the upper terrace of the hotel.

—Mandy Major