Over the years, many installments of this column have been dedicated to the importance of arts education. For one, it is key in the effort to groom the next generation of talent for our industry.
Just as, if not more, importantly, when arts are part of a curriculum—from elementary to high school and college—students benefit tremendously. There have been numerous studies documenting that students who receive a fine arts education often improve academically in other subjects ranging from English to math, science and history. A prime reason for this is that kids see the relevance of education to their lives once they’ve been engaged by the arts. Through learning about the arts, students start to view education generally in a different, more positive light and thus begin to take more out of—and devote more of themselves to—their formal instruction in other classes.
So it’s with considerable interest that we viewed "Why Shakespeare?" a documentary directed, written and edited by Larry Bridges. A noted director/editor, Bridges is known to most as the founder of Red Car, an editorial/post house with bases of operation in Santa Monica, San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Dallas, San Antonio and Buenos Aires. Red Car produced "Why Shakespeare?" on a pro bono basis. Freelancer Jan Wieringa served as executive producer. Doug Glover was the DP.
"Why Shakespeare?" promotes Shakespeare in American Communities, an initiative which brings professional theater productions of Shakespeare and related educational activities to local communities and schools throughout the country. Presented by the National Endowment for the Arts with the Sallie Mae Fund and in cooperation with Arts Midwest, Shakespeare in American Communities is billed as the largest tour of Shakespeare in U.S. history. High on its agenda is educational outreach. The National Endowment for the Arts has developed a resource packet for teachers that includes a manual, brochure, timeline poster, audio CD and educational video. The teacher’s manual contains suggested classroom activities, a biography on Shakespeare, fact sheets on Elizabethan Theater and the Shakespearean period, and guidelines for recitation contests.
Bridges’ documentary—which debuted during a kickoff event at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles last month—features assorted celebrities, such as Tom Hanks, Martin Sheen, Michael York, William Shatner and Christina Applegate. However, most telling are the non-celebs—the students who have been exposed to and been positively impacted by the work of Shakespeare. A teenage girl talks about how performing Shakespeare turned her from being shy to feeling more confident about herself. A young heavy metal guy relates that many of his friends have dropped out of school, but being able to act in Shakespearean production on stage has inspired him and helped turn his life around. He now has a personal vision for a better future.
For his contributions to the documentary—which will also be screened at numerous venues, and perhaps on TV—Bridges last month received the National Endowment for the Arts Chairman’s Medal For Distinguished Service. But the greater reward for Bridges is the feeling that "Why Shakespeare?" will help to do good, promoting an initiative designed to bring Shakespeare to some 200 under-served inner cities, translating to 1 million Americans who might otherwise never experience Shakespeare. He finds it especially gratifying to have a hand in helping kids connect to the arts, enabling them to uncover talents they never knew they had.
"To be able to give one-hundred percent of yourself as a filmmaker to a project and cause you fully believe in is rare," related Bridges. "The opportunity to give back in a meaningful way like this is what all of us should seek out."
