Feature: YOUTH SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL at Meow Wolf

Now in its third year, the Youth Shakespeare Festival features students from Academy of Technology and the Classics, Capital High, Eldorado Community School, Mandela International School, McCurdy Charter School, New Mexico School for the Arts, Santa Fe High, Santa Fe Indian School, Santa Fe Prep, and the Upstart Crows of Santa Fe.

Students at these nine schools have rehearsed scenes from a variety of Shakespeare plays each week this semester with Upstart Crows founder and director Caryl Farkas and LAMDA educated International Shakespeare Center artistic director Ariana Karp. "Shakespeare is universal and specific," says Ms. Karp. "Different passages inspire and confound, exhilarate and empower. His works don't belong to one group of people, they don't belong solely to actors or academics, they belong to whoever is speaking those words, they belong to everyone."

"Helping the International Shakespeare Center get our youth program off and running brings together everything I've learned about doing Shakespeare with young people. This festival is going to be an inspiration," said Ms. Farkas of the Youth Shakespeare Festival.

Students have also attended workshops from local fight director Ambrose Ferber and UK author and Globe Theatre director Ben Crystal. Actors also performed at a Shakespearean Open Mic night at Il Vicino in Santa Fe.

Plays featured at the YSF this year include Macbeth, Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing, Julius Caesar, Richard III, Twelfth Night, Hamlet, Antony and Cleopatra, The Winter's Tale, King Henry IV, Part 1, and The Tempest.

Students involved in the Youth Shakespeare Festival have expressed gratitude for the opportunity. Jackie Q., who plays Cleopatra in McCurdy Charter School's Antony and Cleopatra scene, said of the Youth Shakespeare Festival, "I think it's a good opportunity for people who want to go on and continue acting in the future. The language in Shakespeare is fun, and even when it's kind of hard, you get the hang of it!"

The performances for this year's Youth Shakespeare Festival have all been staged for spaces within the Meow Wolf House of Eternal Return installation; those in attendance will be taken on tours throughout the facility to see the site specific scenes and soliloquys.

The Youth Shakespeare Festival is included in Meow Wolf admission price this Saturday, December 1.