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Where is Richard from Texas these days and what's he up to?

He let me know:

Howdy Mel, This is what I do every Thursday at USO/DFW Airport. Play the banjo for our brave troops.Been there since Jan. 2005. Bob Hope entertained troops for 65+ years.

Thank you, Richard, for sharing your story with us and for sharing your banjo music with our troops.

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I was curious how Richard from Texas was impacted by his experience of touring "A Midsummer Night's Dream" as Snug the Joiner.

Here is another piece of his correspondence to me:

Howdy Mel,

Last November our DREAM TOUR group met in Reunion. I wrote a letter to THE QUEEN of ENGLAND to tell her about our 1959 TOUR. There were 17 of the original group met with family. We honored the head of the Speech Dept. and his wife Dr. and Mrs. MacDonald W. Held. We had a lot of stories and pictures to go through. 50 years after the DREAM TOUR.

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I like that Richard addresses both her Majesty and me with the same "Howdy."

AND he got a response from Buckingham Palace:

Howdy Mel, Do you believe this? In Sept. 2009 I wrote to THE QUEEN to tell her about the 1959 TOUR. Go to the Reunion and tell 'em. I wrote to THE QUEEN. Some chuckled. Then Nov. 21,2009 I received this letter from the Lady-In-Waiting. I opened that big brown envelope from BUCKINGHAM PALACE. What an honor to receive a letter from HER MAJESTY. I tell everybody about it. Nobody in my family has ever gotten a letter from THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND. The chuckles have stopped. The letter is in a safe place.

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Many people recall some encounter with the works of William Shakespeare. Sadly, many of those experiences are boring, dry recitations in high school. Or, they could be an exciting life-impacting event — as I've recently heard from my new online buddy, Richard in Texas.

When Richard was enrolled at Howard Payne University in 1958 he found himself and his banjo in a cowboy-style version of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Richard was cast as Snug the Joiner in a production that left Brownwood, Texas, and embarked on a tour of England.

This is Richard's first letter to me:

Howdy Mel Ryane, Saw your interesting website about teaching William Shakespeare. Thought you might enjoy the story about our DREAM TOUR back in the summer of 1959. I was Snug the Joiner. It was a real experience.

Richard shared pictures and located a 1959 Time magazine story about the tour:

"It's kinda funny when Ah say 'Perish on mah sword,' " mused a Colt-toting Texas lad, and it may be even funnier than he supposed. This week he and 27 other Texas students are due in London with what is likely to be the oddest U.S. export to Britain this year—an "adult western" version of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, produced by Howard Payne College (enrollment: 1,100), a Baptist school in Brownwood, west of Waco.

Just as unlikely is the Dream's creator: a trim, urbane Englishman named Alex Reeve, 58, who turned up at Howard Payne more than two years ago as speech professor, after 14 years as a director at the Royal Theater and Opera House in Northampton, England. When Reeve descended on Brownwood, he was appalled to find that Shakespeare had not been presented there professionally for 40 years and not even by amateurs for 20 years. He promptly put the Bard and his students in the same corral. Instead of "a wood near Athens," Reeve's Dream is set on a Texas ranch in the 1880s, and the guitar-twanging players appear in Stetsons, bandannas and bustles (Hippolyta is an Indian princess in white buckskin). The dialogue is unchanged except by Texas tongues: "O naht! alack, alack, alack! Ah feah mah Thisby's promise is furgot."

Last fall this hilarious enterprise was boffo at the Texas State Fair and invitations to hit the road in Britain landed on Reeve's desk. To pay their way, the players kicked in their savings, worked at all sorts of odd jobs, raised $10,000 on their own. Friends, teachers, fellow students boosted the ante to $17,000. Result: the Howard Payne Dream will be sole U.S. representative at Bristol's prestigious International Festival of University Theater, and for nine weeks will get top billing at professional theaters in Coventry, Northampton, Cambridge, and Dundee, Scotland. If this is the way to meet up with ole Shakespeare, the students say, "we feel raht at home doin' it."

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When I get letters to the blog, I sometimes post them. Here's one:

I wrote you sometime ago about our class performance of Macbeth. As it turns out the play did very well. The mayor of the city came to watch! I called the children's author Lois Burdett, and she talked to each child individually. These kids are hooked!

I have never seen anything like it! I was hoping that our school could have an after school program or summer program of Shakespeare. That would be a dream come true!

I know you volunteer your time for your after school program and I can see from your website you have inspired so many children!

In this very difficult economy I am going to try to find people who would be willing to back this idea. Right now the children are asking to perform Hamlet when we have a break!! I cannot let this excitement for learning go away. If you have any suggestions, I would be eternally grateful.

I am thrilled by your progress and success. Your passion will get you far and their passion will fuel you. It's all about raising the bar through giant language, characters and plot.

Tell the kids that to be actors they need to exercise and expand their imaginations like they do their muscles when they go to gym class. The best way to do this is by writing. Have them relate to the characters by writing on a play's themes and identifying from their own lives.

The three top themes for Shakespeare's plays are power, love and revenge. Kids understand these. Have them write about when they wanted power, love or revenge.

Boys learn on their feet. They're not wired to learn sitting like girls do. Suggest they get up and share from their writing. It starts the bravery component and soon they will all be grappling to write and to read aloud.

To teach the kids swordplay, line them up in two rows and have them face each other a few feet apart. Assign each move a number and call out each number as the kids practice the moves. They love this. If line "A" wins, line "B" collapses dead. Then reverse it. You can find these basic moves online or in books.

Keep me posted!

The Mailbag

When I receive questions or requests, I do my best to satisfy. If you have one of your own, go to "Contact Me" on the sidebar.

Here is a follow-up:

Dear Ms. Ryane,

I wrote you earlier about our assembly. I would be so happy to meet someone who has the same passion for teaching Shakespeare. Also, the children would be happy to meet you as well. The assembly will be in March.

I know this is a longshot, and really we don't have the most fancy stage in the world, but if you have a chance, it would be great if you could come. Remember, I am the third-grade teacher who had no idea how popular this was going to be with the children! Right now, I am typing out Hamlet.

I would love to come! Please keep me posted closer to the date and I will do my best to get there.

Congratulations!

Thank you! You made my day!!

I will tell you!!!

Merry Christmas! and a Shakespeare new year!!

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Okay, readers, here's some correspondence that tells a whole tale:

Hello,

I love your blog, it is a miracle to find someone who believes as strongly as I do about teaching Shakespeare to children! My third-grade class has been practicing Macbeth for awhile, and they are WONDERFUL performers. They have learned so much and they want to keep learning as much as they can.

Sadly, my principal does not feel the same as I do, and has even told me so in meetings. So of course the other teachers agree with her.

What can you tell me to convince her how important it is?

Thank you, I appreciate any input. And happy to meet someone who has the passion to teach!

I'm shocked and saddened to hear this. That's just plain wrong, awful and sad. Don't give up. Tell your principal and fellow educators to read this blog, from the beginning, when it started in July of this year. Maybe they will get an inkling of what big words in big stories can do to raise big voices and big confidence.

I'm in an inner-city school with kids carrying and wrestling with all kinds of baggage. Their teachers will tell anyone that their students' reading and comprehension levels are up from their work in The Shakespeare Club.

I think when we raise the bar, they leap and are empowered.

Keep up the fight.

Thank you for your kind words. Our school is in a poor district as well, but it is a Catholic school. I think she thinks it is too controversial to perform, but I try to make it as G-rated as I can. You are right about comprehension. The slow readers want to read constantly.

One little boy in my class walks around with a binder filled with Shakespeare quotes. He was one of the "slow" ones. Thanks for letting me vent, sometimes I feel like I am all alone in my quest. But, when I read your blog, it was like a huge beacon of light.

I will try to show her the blog. Thank you!

P.S. don't worry I will never quit!

I have great news. My principal, after reading your blog, is now open to having the students do this play! I think your blog as well as a visit from the mayor of our city convinced her it was a good idea. Remember the little boy with binder of quotes?

Well, when the mayor came to our class, the class was prepared to ask questions. The student with the binder of quotes asked, "Would you like to see us perform Macbeth?"

The mayor was shocked, and of course said Yes. This is all pretty surreal to me. But, with prayer and conviction. great things can happen!

Thanks again!

I'm so, so thrilled for you, for your students, for the mayor and...well, let's applaud your principal!

Keep me posted.

The Mailbag

Occasionally I receive questions and do my best to give helpful answers. I will share those I think may be of interest to you, the reader.

Should you wish to send me your own query, click "Contact Me" on the sidebar.

Here is a question and my answer:

Mel,

First I would like to thank you on behalf of all the students you have helped in these past years. I am starting an afterschool Shakespeare Club here at my school, where I was recently hired to work with a Pull out Program of GT students. Since I do not want leave any of the students feeling left out I want to start an Afterschool Shakespeare Club where all the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students will have an opportunity to participate. Where do I start? To be honest I do not know, I am doing all this on my own with no help. I know I can get it accomplished not for my talent but for the love, passion, and energy that I am willing to give these students. I was an ELL myself when I came to the States and I know what most of these students are going through.

I would appreciate any suggestions, tips, comments that you can suggest to get this Club up and running as soon as possible.

I'm excited that you want to do this. I'm not sure what "GT students" are but here's a little advice.

Pick up, in a library or bookstore or on Amazon, copies of "A Child's Portrait of Shakespeare" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by Lois Burdett. Lois was a second-grade teacher (now retired) who started doing Shakespeare with her students.

The first book is a way kids can read aloud about who Shakespeare was. Also, find library books for kids about Shakespeare and the Elizabethan period and have them write in journals and draw pictures of things they learn with you.

Lois has adapted many of Shakespeare's plays for children. My first year I took Lois' version of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and added some more of the original text. I created a narrator, using her writing, and The Shakesepare Club was able to stage a 45-minute performance. The kids don't have to memorize lines but get them to read really well and spend time helping them learn new words from the text.

You might want to begin your club with no more than 15 kids. It's a lot to take on. It's a good idea to start with a little deep breathing to get them settled. A few physical warm-ups because actors have to be in good shape. Some humming to warm up their voices.

Together you can all figure out the plot of the play. Take a few meetings to read it through and discuss what is going on.

Good luck!