Bob Mitchell does the Bard in bits for school kids
By Kim Hudson
For the St. Louis American
The small stage seemed to disappear as his baritone voice boomed. Under that voice, the simple island backdrop took on the lives of flying sea fowl and swaying palm trees. The fidgety middle-schoolers fell silent as Shakespeare’s brainchild, Prospero, defiantly lamented his fate on a deserted island.
Last Friday morning, Bob Mitchell effortlessly transported the youngsters of Carr Lane Visual and Performing Arts Middle School to the beautiful, and treacherous, isle of William Shakespeare’s imagination.
Mitchell has acted in two plays a day since February for the Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis. He has played two characters, Prospero and Boatswain, in The Tempest in a Flash, a version of Shakespeare’s play The Tempest condensed to just 40 minutes.
He will continue at this pace until May 20. Then, he will prepare to perform the play every day from May 25 through June 19 for St. Louis’ fourth annual Shakespeare in the Park.
The play’s shorter version and whirlwind schedule is designed to teach as many local school children as possible about Shakespeare. By the time the play’s tour is complete, students at 110 schools will have seen the play.
“Prospero used to be the duke of Milan, Italy. He let his brother run the kingdom while he went to magic school,” Mitchell explained the premise of The Tempest.
“When he was away, the brother decided to keep the kingdom himself. So they kidnapped Prospero and his daughter Miranda (played by Maura Catherine Kidwell), who was only three at the time, and put them on a boat and sent them off to sea so they would die out there.”
Instead, the boat crashed on a deserted island. Father and daughter were stuck on the island for twelve years. What results is a story of revenge and wizardry that ends in romance and reconciliation.
Mitchell, an Alton native, was a young child when he started grooming his voice for acting.
“As you can tell, I have this pretty straight, Midwestern accent,” he said. “That’s from watching a lot of network news when I was a kid. I thought, ‘I’ll just go for straight Midwestern, and then I can add any other accents that I want.'”
Though Mitchell started a serious acting career at Alton High School, he did not plan to major in theatre in college at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. He planned to teach music but act as a hobby, until a music teacher pushed Mitchell to embrace his first love.
“I was doing a musical with the theater department, and a choral concert was coming up. We had been rehearsing for the entire semester, and the final rehearsal for the choral concert was on the last performance for the musical,” Mitchell said.
“[The music teacher] was like, ‘You need to make decisions.’ So, next thing, I dropped music and joined the theatre department. So I would like to thank that guy.”
The students of Bryan Hill Elementary School could also be thanking “that guy.” As part of the Shakespeare Festival’s North Side Neighborhood Partnership, Mitchell is directing the students in their own production of The Tempest.
He said his students are stepping up to the challenge of performing the play and performing it fast. That version will only be 30 minutes.
“I rehearse with the kids twice a week for an hour, not a lot of time,” he said. “But yesterday was a great rehearsal. The kids were amazing. We got through 4 scenes, and there’s only 4 left.”
Mitchell has also been impressed with the reactions from much younger audiences.
“When we’re doing elementary schools, they bring in kindergartners and first-graders,” he said. “I’m like, ‘Oh my god, they’re never going to get this.’ But they’re right on it!”
The whirlwind tour continues. On May 15 at 1 p.m., the festival will visit the Saint Louis Art Museum for a free public show. Call (314) 361-0101 or see www.sfstl.com.