Northshore Magazine

138 So much so, that as an honors student at Salem High, she received a failing grade on one of the Bard's most famous plays— Hamlet. "I just didn't get it. The text was dry, confusing, uninteresting," Cahill notes. "Sitting in class and silently reading these words written hundreds of years ago, just made no sense to me." Her father was a writer and historian, but Cahill's intro- duction to Shakespeare didn't come until high school. "Julius Caesar was another play that I barely made it through," she quips. "I decided Shakespeare was overrated." Artful Director Program director Keri Cahill enters her 25th year of Rebel Shakespeare. It was at Gordon College in Wenham that Cahill's opinion finally changed. Another student—whom she had a mad crush on at the time—challenged her to read Shakespeare with him. "He told me that I wasn't approaching the plays the right way—they were meant to be performed, not read," she notes. "These were plays after all." She and her teenage crush began acting the parts. The more she acted out the scenes, the more she grasped Shakespeare's language. Cahill hit her literary stride and decided to ma- jor in English with a minor in theatre. Her once disinterested attitude toward the 16 th -century playwright and poet turned into a lifelong love affair. After graduating from college, Cahill was unsure of a career path. A friend suggested she combine her love of Shakespeare, theatre, and teaching into an educational program for children. In 1990, she formed Rebel Shakespeare, a month-long summer program for kids between the ages of 10 and 18 to learn about Shakespeare and his plays. Twelve students showed up the first year to explore Shakespeare through discussion, improvisation, movement, creative writ- ing, visual arts, and rehearsals. At the end of the month, they performed A Midsum- mer Night's Dream. "The atmosphere is supportive—all children take part," notes Cahill. "We got such a great response that first summer that I decided to do it all over again the next." Since Rebel Shakespeare's beginning, Cahill has worked with more than 10,000 children and teens through her work- shops, private classes, school residencies, and drama therapy programs. She has also traveled to London to apprentice at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre as well as been involved with Shakespeare & Com- pany in Lenox, Kristin Linklater's Compa- ny of Women, Gloucester Stage Company, Massachusetts High School Drama Guild, Department of Mental Health treatment facilities for adolescents, and both public and private schools. "It's amazing to see kids come out of their shells," notes Keri Cahill hated studying Shakespeare in high school. photographs by joel laino REV_3_138_Apr14 Shakespeare.indd 138 2/21/14 5:46 PM

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