S-E Drama Club students rehearsing for "A Night of Shakespeare," a collection of scenes and monologues from Shakespeare plays. (Submitted photo)

EARLVILLE ― The Sherburne-Earlville Drama Club will be performing "A Night of Shakespeare," a sampling of scenes and monologues from Shakespeare plays at 7 p.m. on Friday, May 2 and Saturday, May 3 at the Earlville Opera House, located at 18 East Main Street in Earlville.

The cast is made up of S-E students in sixth through 12th grade, including Cameron Carpenter, Tucker Valentine, Evie Krivit, Amelia Pierce, Emmaleigh Excell, William Russett, Jaiden Lester, Liam Acly, Meg O'Connor, Seth Hamilton, Madison Townsend, Josie Pierce, Mckennah Jones, Kinsey Nelson, Sybil Fenton, and Evan Chesebro, as well as Student Stage Manager Ashlee Kent, Student House Manager Bethany Garrison, and students Clark Vischi and Aiden Howland on lights and sound.

Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for seniors and students, and will be available to purchase at the door the nights of the show.

Director Lisette Schiffer said the performance will include scenes using most of the cast members, pairs performing scenes, as well as a selection of monologues from Shakespeare plays such as "Romeo and Juliet," "The Taming of the Shrew," "Othello," "Hamlet," and more.

"We have some of the famous scenes from Shakespeare, like the 'Romeo and Juliet' balcony scene, and then we also have some monologues from 'The Taming of the Shrew' and 'Othello' that are not as common as things like 'Romeo and Juliet,'" she explained.

Students also had the opportunity to learn stage fighting techniques with swords for the famous "Romeo and Juliet" fight scene between characters Tybalt and Mercutio.

Schiffer said she opted to do scenes from various Shakespeare plays instead of one singular play to give the students a well-rounded knowledge of Shakespeare plays, as well as provide the audience with a more interesting show.

"I wanted not just the kids to be familiar with different Shakespearean shows but other people too, or maybe people that only know a little bit about Shakespeare, they can get a taste of some of the other shows," she said.

"You might prefer 'Julius Caesar' over 'Romeo and Juliet,' and so there is a scene from that," she continued. "There’s some comedic scenes, there’s some dramatic, there’s some scary. So it’s a mix of different things, and that way you and the actors get a taste of Shakespeare and not have to sit through an entire play."

Additionally, the show will be set in modern times with modern clothing as costumes, although the students will still be using Shakespearean language.

They will also have different students playing the same character, but in different scenes.

"We may have scenes and monologues from 'Romeo and Juliet,' but we have different kids playing [the role]. So we have a monologue from Juliet, and it’s a different girl doing the monologue as opposed to the girl that’s doing Juliet in the balcony scene," Schiffer explained. "We did that on purpose because I wanted to be able to give more kids an opportunity and also not overwhelm a bunch of the kids by putting them in a ton of scenes. This way it was a bit more fair to be able to give kids an opportunity by doing that."

Schiffer said the students have been working hard to learn their scenes and lines, and have really made the show their own.

"It’s been really incredible to see the work that these students have put in," she said. "It’s been amazing to see some of the students especially who have never ever done Shakespeare in their life, and you just watch them and you can see that they have such a flair for it, too, and that’s just wonderful to see as well."

"They could’ve really gotten hung up on the language of Shakespeare and that, ‘oh this isn’t modern words, I can’t do this,'" she added. "All of them have taken this show and really done well with it and did it with integrity and grace and didn't complain at all, and they really had fun with it, which makes me happy."

The production is also being supported by S-E Drama Club students who are a part of the stage crew, including sophomore Amanda Markiewicz, who won this year's poster contest.

The club started the contest last year. Drama Club members are invited to design a poster for the upcoming production, and then students vote on which one will be used to promote the show.

"We do it anonymously so the kids don’t know who created what poster. So it doesn’t create any like, ‘oh, I'm going to just vote for that person because they’re my friend.’ They genuinely vote for the poster that they liked the best," said Schiffer.

Schiffer encourages community members, who are both familiar with Shakespeare and not, to come out and see their hard work on stage.

"Just come and have an open mind and enjoy the show," said Schiffer. "The kids worked so hard, and if you want to just come to support the kids, that’s what matters the most is just to come out there and support the sixth through 12th graders that have worked so hard on it. Come and see their work and be excited about it. I know the kids love it when they have people come and see their shows, so that’s the most important thing to me."

Even if you don’t know Shakespeare, come see because this is a great way to get a little taste of Shakespeare."

For more information on the Sherburne-Earlville Drama Club, visit the Sherburne-Earlville Drama Club Rocks Facebook page or @s.e.dramaclub_ on Instagram.