DSS trip to Stratford Festival 2012 in the works

Bryan Kellam

      From the very roots of dramatic performance, the tragedy of ancient Greece, and some of the highest regarded playwrights in Canada today, the Stratford Festival holds it all.

Dunnville Secondary School (DSS) is planning a trip to Stratford, a world renowned festival and center for the dramatic arts in Canada, to experience Shakespeare outside of the classroom.

Students attending the trip on the 17^th of May will see a production of William Shakespeare’s comedy “Much Ado About Nothing” at the Festival Theatre. Those participating must pay a fee of 55 dollars. The cost for the trip covers the ticket and the coach bus for transportation.

As the play will be in the afternoon, the rest of the day will be spent in the old historic village of Stratford, enjoying the scenery and everything the town has to offer.

DSS doesn’t make trips to Stratford often, the last one being two years ago. The organizer of the trip, Renata Dykstra, urges students and parents interested in going to attend.

“We really need to do this,” said Dykstra. “This is a way to see how Shakespeare is supposed to be experienced. Everybody should see it performed. It’s so much more important to see these plays than it is to read them.”

Although Shakespeare is a very old playwright, Dykstra stressed that theater is for everybody, and that seeing it performed at the Stratford Festival will, “Get you hooked.”

“The kids loved it when we went two years ago,” Dykstra said. “I want to get kids into the tradition of seeing plays happen, so they can see what they’re learning. Cayuga makes these trips every year, and we should too.”

Many great theatre actors have been known to perform in Stratford, such as Christopher Plummer.

As the trip is being made during the middle of May, those who wish to attend must get forms and money in by the middle of April. If there aren’t enough students signed up by then, the trip will be forced to cancel.