UALR magazine
Fall/Winter 2007 • Vol. 3 No. 2
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Bringing the Bard to Life: Roslyn Knutson
By Tonya Oaks Smith
In the wings of UALR’s University Theatre, Professor Roslyn Knutson eagerly watches each performance in the Shakespeare Scene Festival. Every year, elementary, middle, and high school students work hard - not because of any prize or grade, but because their work brings the Bard to life.
For the past nine years, the Scene Festival has taught Arkansas students the importance of Shakespeare’s work. Almost 650 students participated on stage, behind the scenes, or in the audience in 2007 alone. And by continuing to engage new students, Knutson and other teachers are determined to bring about a new awareness of the value of performance for all learners.
“To teach, the place to start is with a sense of cultural knowledge, and there is a community of knowledge with Shakespeare that is virtually untouchable with any other writer,” said Knutson, who has encouraged thousands of literature enthusiasts in her 43-year career at UALR. “That’s not to say that Shakespeare is the exclusive center of that cultural knowledge, but he certainly is crucial to it. And a young person today who has no knowledge of, or has a warped opinion of Shakespeare, displaces himself automatically from what has been for 400 years what we call ‘received knowledge.’”
North Little Rock High School–West campus teacher Julia Markham has been a part of the Scene Festival almost since its inception. She helps her students prepare for the event as an outside-the-classroom project because class time is occupied with curriculum requirements and testing, but the students love the whole experience of UALR’s unique offering.
“We rehearse before school each day, and I know the kids really want to do this because they are giving up so much of their time,” Markham said. They choose the scene; they are the directors, costume and prop master, etc. I am the primary casting director with the occasional censor button that says ‘Stop and try that again!’”
Shakespeare’s characters are incredibly powerful, Knutson said, and that’s what makes his work meaningful today - that and the fact that the Bard’s approach to situations is completely modern despite the time lapse.
“His issues have Elizabethan immediacy, but they also have contemporary relevance,” she added. “Take ‘Romeo and Juliet’ - people still fall in love when they’re teenagers. They still think they would die for love if they cannot have what they want. It’s awful hard to get away from that.”
Knutson started the Shakespeare Scene Festival at UALR after attending workshops sponsored by the Education Division of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. There, she became enthralled with the idea of teaching Shakespeare through performance rather than methods that were thought to be “tried and true,” like watching a film or reading the play aloud in class. Knutson and her students began a Renaissance Faire at UALR, and local teachers began bringing their students to the event.
“Performance learning allows students to own the work,” Knutson added. “These works empower a variety of learning styles - not just those students who learn by reading.”
Knutson brings an international flair to her work. She regularly engages with the Marlowe Society of America and international Shakespeare associations. After presenting to a master’s degree-level class at London’s Globe Theatre that is coordinated with the University of London, she also spoke for a lecture series in theater history.
Working with professionals in the same theater where Shakespeare plied his trade inspires Knutson to continue her work with students of the stage. “Being on stage is such a potent experience,” she concluded. “You feel really good about being there, and these kids will grow old remembering their time on the stage.”
These students will also remember their time with Dr. Knutson, whose legacy will continue long after her teaching career. A former student has honored her by establishing the Roslyn L. Knutson Scholarship in English.
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