Guest Blogger Nathan Stewart--Shakespearience Student

After telling people that I'm here at Honeyrock for "Shakespearience," I'm often met with a puzzled look or the question, "So what do you guys do exactly?" I wondered the same thing myself coming out here-what exactly are we going to do (exactly) and what sort of Shakespearience am I supposed to be having?

Well, a week in, I guess I'll start with the facts. Shakespearience is part of a new arts initiative at HoneyRock, grouped as a Creativity Course along with the kiln building class that is happening concurrently, a move to expand the activities offered at HoneyRock and to enrich the experience of the camp across a breadth of disciplines. Shakespearience is listed as both an English Literature and Communications (Theater) course and is led by Professors Brett Foster of the English Department and Mark Lewis of the Comm. (Theater) Department. Felicia Bertch, a Wheaton College alum and theater artist, has also joined us acting as a participant in the course consisting of a group of alumni and current students across majors, as well as being our movement instructor.

All of that seemed a little dry and vague in the typing, and sounds even dryer and vaguer in the reading-over of it.  The course is much more exciting than that--what we do, along with participating in the flow of life together at HoneyRock, is immerse ourselves in the environment, the company, and Shakespeare. I think of one of the HoneyRock slogans, "a place apart," as particularly relevant to the purpose of the Shakespearience course. We've all taken time apart from the hustle and bustle of daily life to spend time with a group of diverse people with a shared love for theater, literature, and Shakespeare. It is a time we can dedicate to God, the community we've created out of this shared love, and to the passion through which we hope to serve both: our art.

A typical day begins with breakfast and devotions with the rest of the camp, and then a yoga and movement session with Felicia to begin our day. We then move on to a "clump circle," in which we recite 4-8 prepared lines of Shakespearean verse, removed from the context of the play or sonnet the lines are taken from and usually having to do with a particular theme. After the clump circle, we often have a spirited discussion about the book we've been reading (Bill Bryson's Shakespeare), some of the plays, the culture of the time, Shakespeare in performance, the difficulties and joys of trying to live life as a Christian artist, and just about anything that pops into our heads.  The discussions are joyful, rewarding, scattered and wide-ranging. After our discussion, we're assigned a topic for our next "clump" and some reading to do, and then get to spend the rest of the day reading, working with text, and hanging out with one another and other HoneyRockers. We often get together to read a play or have an informal discussion in the evening as well. The dynamic between younger and older students, alums, and professors has been a unique and valuable one.

At this point, we're less than halfway through our Shakespearience, so surprises might be in store, but thus far it's been a rewarding time in which to communally and prayerfully gather in a beautiful place with the rich works of Shakespeare who, as his contemporary and rival Ben Jonson wrote, "was not of an age, but for all time!"