Watching William Shakespeare’s plays come to life is a bit like walking into a dark room. The longer someone is immersed, the more everything comes into focus.
Montana Shakespeare in the Schools, a branch of Montana Shakespeare in the Parks and an outreach program of Montana State University’s College of Arts and Architecture, shares this analogy with middle and high school students before each performance of “Richard III.” From October to December, the 33-year-old program will bring the production and workshops to 50 schools across Montana and Wyoming, including many that are rural and without theater programs. It is one of the oldest Shakespeare companies in the U.S.
“It feels like a gift as opposed to seeing this fancy Shakespeare production at a fancy theater and sitting quietly, not understanding it,” said Dustin Valenta, a Chicago-based actor who plays Richard. “You see it feet away from you and can interact with it, ask questions afterward, have those actors in your classroom speaking to you and apply it directly to your life. If I had that as a kid, I think the way I thought about Shakespeare would be much different.”
On Oct. 29 and 30, Shakespeare in the Schools will visit Belgrade High School and Gallatin High School.
Each program begins with an 80-minute performance of “Richard III,” which follows Richard’s ascension to the English throne as he manipulates and murders his way to the top before dying in battle. Richard, who had scoliosis and walked with a limp, navigates insecurity and selfishness — an exploration of humanity that is still as relevant today as it was 400 years ago, said associate art director Riley O’Toole, who first joined Shakespeare in the Schools as an actor in 2016.
“A lot of students in high school look into the mirror and to some degree think — I certainly did say to myself — ‘I feel deformed, unfinish’d, sent before my time into this breathing world scarce half made up’ like Richard,” O’Toole said. “We talk to them about the importance of cultivating a healthy self-image and how much more challenging that is these days.”
After the performance, students can ask teaching artists about the production and their career paths. They also join the actors in one of four workshops that meet Common Core standards in English language arts and literacy, discussing history, the influence of media, acting and stage combat.
At Bainville Public School in northeast Montana, students joined a civics workshop and debated who would make a better leader compared to Richard, in addition to how Shakespeare’s interpretation of history — and Richard’s villainous portrayal — was influenced by those in power. English teacher Sarah Morales said students were still talking about the workshop the next day.
“As long as this program exists, I imagine we will be inviting them back every year,” she said.
The school serves nearly 200 K-12 students in the small Montana town of Bainville, which hosted Shakespeare in the Schools this month for the first time since 2020. To prepare, Morales used the program’s teacher toolkit to run activities introducing her students to “Richard III.” She said the production’s themes of ambition and identity directly apply to the upcoming unit on “Macbeth” in her British literature class.
Richard’s internal battle, which Valenta said felt akin to his own struggle with identity in the past, also provided representation for youth at the Pine Hills Youth Correctional Facility in Miles City this month.
Twelve years ago, Valenta was sent to the hospital after a car accident. Doctors didn’t think he would walk again, and the accident left him with scoliosis. Much like Richard, he said he dealt with feeling “crooked” and as if his internal self didn’t match his physical appearance. When a teenager from Pine Hills asked him about his role during a Q&A, Valenta shared his story.
“They had some physical and mental challenges that made them a target of bullying, and I think being able to see representation of someone with a physical difference that was reckoning with it in a way that wasn’t necessarily effective but was able to ascend to a place of significant authority was a really powerful thing,” he said.
For schools with theater programs, Shakespeare in the Schools also provides a chance for students to workshop their fall productions. Ahlora Victoria, a Chicago-based actor who plays four characters in “Richard III,” helped Billings West High School students develop their roles in “Hamlet” through her acting workshop on Oct. 6.
As someone who was typically cast in the roles of “the sassy best friend” before college, Victoria said she wanted to impart advice she wished she could give her 16-year-old self: You’re not too much, and you never will be.
“I was meant to believe that I was just a lot,” she said. “I thought I was going to be cast in certain roles for the rest of my life until I got to college because I’m a very dramatic person. In my workshops, I really try to validate students’ opinions and their thoughts and their choices. I’m like, ‘I know you can do it, and I need you to believe that you can do it.’”
Thirty-six schools are left on the program’s tour, in addition to a ticketed performance raising funds for Shakespeare in the Schools at 6 p.m. Nov. 1 in MSU’s Blackbox Theater.
“You’re seeing something that will never be repeated and know that you were just part of a unique moment in history,” Valenta said. “That’s magic to me.”
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