Three times a week since mid-May, Lemieux had been meeting with groups of residents in Henry Wade and in August they finished the program with Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” on the stage. But to the young residents of Henry Wade, this production signified more than just a show.
Junior Players, a non-profit organization, started the program in 2023 in partnership with Henry Wade as an effort to introduce children to theater and great literature. And after the first year, a friend of Lemieux’s, who had worked with Junior Players invited him to be an educator and director for the program.
Said Lemieux, “This is the kind of work I’ve read about for a long time and have always been interested in exploring.”
This summer, the program started by getting the kids comfortable with the language of Shakespeare’s plays and the ideas and questions presented in them. In one instance, while reading Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy, Lemieux asked the kids what they believed the passage was about.
“They thought it was about something far more superficial initially,” said Lemieux, “[but] they eventually came around to the idea that Hamlet is considering whether he should take his own life. And then it unlocks for them, and they get it.”
Through Lemieux’s guidance, the kids gained the knowledge to understand words like “fardels” and “bodkin,” to see past them and thus to recognize the human emotions they too have encountered.
Said Lemieux, “They start to see that what’s being discussed is actually far more relatable to their own lives, maybe [more] than they initially thought.”
This part of the program gave the students a great opportunity to learn about and represent characters who face similar problems to their own. When representing these characters, they get to address their problems through the words of someone else, and it allows them to see that they are not alone in their struggles, and they see that their way of dealing with them is not the only way.
Acting in a play gave the young residents a challenge to commit to the role they play and to do it well. Said Lemieux, “They start to realize, ‘oh, here’s a difficult thing, but if I keep working at it, I can actually get better.’”
The program was full of opportunities to try something new. Later on, a professional came in to teach the actors about stage combat, and they got to practice with foam swords. On another occasion, they were given lessons in African drumming, which they later incorporated into their production of “Hamlet.”
Lemieux observed that by the end of the summer, the young residents had improved in many ways. Not only did they improve their acting and reading of Shakespeare, but their dispositions changed. Kids who at first seemed angry and resentful to be there eventually grew comfortable with their peers and with the creative project. In Lemieux’s words, “They bloomed.”
“I hope they get half as much out of it as I do,” Lemieux said.