科罗拉多少年演绎莎翁戏剧（在线收听）

Colorado Teens Tackle Shakespeare

科罗拉多少年演绎莎翁戏剧

Americans love Shakespeare. His plays have been adapted into popular musicals and movies … there are 80 Shakespeare festivals across the country … and in Colorado, young teens are producing a light-hearted version of one of the Bard's romantic comedies.

As a cool evening breeze settles over Boulder, Colorado, dozens of youngsters, teens and adults head down a suburban driveway, toting lawn chairs and picnic dinners. Directing them toward the backyard are middle school students wearing lavish Elizabethan gowns.

One girl (whispers): Thouest must go that way, to go to the wonderful dilly dally.

Another girl: Thus comes together to talk Shakespeare.

Tonight, most of that talk will be happening on a makeshift stage as these pre-teen and early teenage actors perform a real Shakespeare play.

One of the ticket takers says that he's been practicing.

"Antonio, I arrest thee a suit at Count Orsino."

“I memorized my lines, everyone had a lot of lines."

The grownups in the audience are proud of what these kids have done, especially the man hosting this backyard production. He is well acquainted with the show's director.

Dan Miller: My daughter, she put it on.

Dan Miller explains that his daughter, Bay, got involved with Shakespeare in elementary school.

Dan Miller: Her teacher does a production every year and she just caught onto it and enjoyed it, and she puts on her own production every summer.

Tonight, Bay is wearing a beautiful burgundy-colored Elizabethan gown, because in addition to directing this play, she's one of the actors. In fact, this 13-year old Shakespeare dynamo says that she even made a few decisions about just how much of the play to present.

Bay: The whole things were condensed version to one hour.

Reporter: How long is usually?

Bay: 13 hours.

As Bay hurries backstage, her dad and a hundred other audience members settle into lawn chairs, eager for the play to begin. A handful of teens and children dressed as clowns crowd together, mischievously watching as Bay steps onto the homemade stage.

Bay (announce the program): The North Boulder Shakespeare Festival would like to present William Shakespeare's comedy…

The clowns break in.

The clowns: To be or not to be! That is the question!

Bay: No! We'd like to present…

(She's interrupted again, prompting laughter from the audience. This time, the clowns choose a line from MacBeth)

The clowns: Double-double, toil and trouble!

Bay: No.

Finally, the clowns let the play begin. It's Twelfth Night, and the actors remember most of their lines. During intermission, Boulder city official Alice Swett takes credit for helping to fund this backyard neighborhood show.

Alice Swett: The program that I ran gives grants to youth for cultural activities such as this one, and, Bay Miller, who is the 8th-grade producer of this production, applied to the youth opportunities program for a grant. And the youth board, which is 16 high school students, reviewed the proposal and gave a grant to support this production.

Bay used the grant money for a better stage, some props and more authentic costumes. In addition to leading this annual neighborhood event, Bay is helping with costumes at a professional theatre production… the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, one of the top Shakespeare festivals in the nation.

But tonight, her focus is on the Shakespearean production in her own backyard. (The applause and cheers of her delighted audience.)

I’m Shelley Schlender in Boulder, Colorado.

注释：

light-hearted adj. 轻松愉快的

suburban [sE5bE:bEn] adj. 郊外的，偏远的

gown [^aun] n. 长袍

dilly dally 磨磨蹭蹭

makeshift [5meikFift] adj. 将就的

thee [Ti:] pron. <古>(thou的宾格)你

be acquainted with 熟悉

dynamo [5dainEmEu] n. 发电机（本文意指“发烧友”）

condense [kEn5dens] v. （使）浓缩

clown [klaun] n. 小丑

mischievously [5mistFivEsli] adv. 淘气地

homemade [5hEum5meid] adj. 自制的

intermission [7intE(:)5miFEn] n. 间断

prop [prCp] n. 道具

authentic [C:5Wentik] adj. 真的；真正的

costume [5kCstju:m] n. 装束，服装