Our Story
"Think but this, and all is mended…"
What if Shakespeare was accessible to kids?
What if Art wasn’t just for the economic and social elite?
What if theater was for everyone?
What if Shakespeare was accessible to kids?
What if Art wasn’t just for the economic and social elite?
What if theater was for everyone?
Mended Wing Theatre Co. is founded on the belief that Shakespeare is for everyone, that theater is an empathy-building tool, and that art should be easily accessible, and financially viable, to people all-across the country, not just to the privileged who live near a 'cultural hub.'
When my classmate Cameron and I decided we were going to take A Midsummer Night’s Dream to public middle and high schools across Georgia, we were met with a truly inspiring amount of support which enabled us to make our dream a reality. We were also, however, met with a fair amount of well-intentioned skepticism. 'We love the idea,' folks would say, 'but these kids aren’t really going to be able to get Shakespeare are they?'
At the time we had only our gut conviction that, yes, in fact, they would. It was our hope that children who had not yet been told that they could not understand Shakespeare simply would. And they did. I’m not saying that they new what every single word meant—that would be a challenge even to a scholar—but children have a wonderful openness to story, that allows them to hold ideas they do not fully understand, until they get the rest of the information they need.
I fear that as adults, when we see something we don’t immediately comprehend, we tend to dismiss it as unnecessary, but as kids, when the world is full of mystery anyway, we are more eager to chase meaning, to find out, to learn what the story is as the story unfolds. I often wish I could watch plays without my previous knowledge of theatrical and literary conventions, just so I could be surprised, be pulled along by a plot again. And this, I think, is the beauty of Shakespeare, his plays are familiar to us by cultural osmosis, and yet new and exciting in every iteration due to their protean poetry.
I think a large part of why many people think they can’t understand Shakespeare is due to years of being told how very complicated it is, how high a form of art it represents, how respected a place in literature it holds, and while all of these things are true, we can’t have fun with Shakespeare while he’s up on his pedestal and we’re bowing at his feet. And Shakespeare is fun, the most fun, in my biased opinion, and when we allow him to come down and play in the dirt with us he is very fun indeed.
Shakespeare offers us, all of us, the chance to be immersed compelling stories. Stories that even after more than 400 years are asking questions of Power, Justice, Love, Gender, Governance, and Mercy, that are as essential—or perhaps even more so—now as they were for the Elizabethans.
So I invite you, young or old, to open your heart, expand your mind, and step into the world of Shakespeare with us. Who knows, you might even find that it was your world all along…
When my classmate Cameron and I decided we were going to take A Midsummer Night’s Dream to public middle and high schools across Georgia, we were met with a truly inspiring amount of support which enabled us to make our dream a reality. We were also, however, met with a fair amount of well-intentioned skepticism. 'We love the idea,' folks would say, 'but these kids aren’t really going to be able to get Shakespeare are they?'
At the time we had only our gut conviction that, yes, in fact, they would. It was our hope that children who had not yet been told that they could not understand Shakespeare simply would. And they did. I’m not saying that they new what every single word meant—that would be a challenge even to a scholar—but children have a wonderful openness to story, that allows them to hold ideas they do not fully understand, until they get the rest of the information they need.
I fear that as adults, when we see something we don’t immediately comprehend, we tend to dismiss it as unnecessary, but as kids, when the world is full of mystery anyway, we are more eager to chase meaning, to find out, to learn what the story is as the story unfolds. I often wish I could watch plays without my previous knowledge of theatrical and literary conventions, just so I could be surprised, be pulled along by a plot again. And this, I think, is the beauty of Shakespeare, his plays are familiar to us by cultural osmosis, and yet new and exciting in every iteration due to their protean poetry.
I think a large part of why many people think they can’t understand Shakespeare is due to years of being told how very complicated it is, how high a form of art it represents, how respected a place in literature it holds, and while all of these things are true, we can’t have fun with Shakespeare while he’s up on his pedestal and we’re bowing at his feet. And Shakespeare is fun, the most fun, in my biased opinion, and when we allow him to come down and play in the dirt with us he is very fun indeed.
Shakespeare offers us, all of us, the chance to be immersed compelling stories. Stories that even after more than 400 years are asking questions of Power, Justice, Love, Gender, Governance, and Mercy, that are as essential—or perhaps even more so—now as they were for the Elizabethans.
So I invite you, young or old, to open your heart, expand your mind, and step into the world of Shakespeare with us. Who knows, you might even find that it was your world all along…
-Emmet Temple, Director and Co-Founder
