Thirteen years ago, then fifth-grader Jhenzen Gonzales took her first foray into the world of theater. She was set to play Lady Macbeth as part of a new partnership between her school and staff members at Elm Shakespeare Company, a local organization celebrating the life and works of the Bard. With no idea what to expect, just a vague understanding that the role was an important one, the 10-year-old faced the audience and performed the famous sleepwalking scene from Macbeth for the first of countless times in her life.
Fast forward to this past Saturday morning. Jhenzen Gonzales, all grown up now, floated around the room as she helped students at that same school — Mauro-Sheridan Interdistrict Magnet School in Westville — get into costume for a dress rehearsal of that same play, Macbeth. Gonzales is the show’s co-director, along with fellow Elm Shakespeare staff member Hannah Gellman.
“It’s crazy how life works,” said Gonzales.
Helping organize Saturday’s dress rehearsal were Sarah Bowles, Elm Shakespeare’s director of education, and Jodi Schneider, program coordinator and one of the original founders of the school’s now-annual Shakespeare tradition. The program has blossomed into a residency supported by Seedlings Foundation, inviting Elm Shakespeare teaching artists to Mauro-Sheridan from January to June of every year, where they prepare and produce a Shakespeare play with an all-student cast.
Schneider remembers Gonzales’s rendition of Lady Macbeth all those years ago. She seemed proud to have Gonzales on as a teaching artist. If Schneider’s goal was to open kids’ minds to the world of Shakespeare, Gonzales is living proof her plan worked.
“It can get a little scary, it can get a little spooky, but everything’s fake,” Gonzales told an imaginary audience before the day’s full run-through commenced, practicing her disclaimers about stage violence as well as her praises of the kids’ dedication to the craft. Then the play began.
Regal in Scottish tartan, ruffles, pleats, and dark, melancholy hues, Mauro-Sheridan’s middle-school cast nailed line after line of Shakespearean musings. As three witches foretold, Scottish general Macbeth and his trusty wife Lady Macbeth rose to power before losing their minds over the path they took to get there. Gonzales, watching and taking directorial notes, beat a wide, thunderous drum to signify sword clashes and the rising tension of the scenes.
The students dove headfirst into their roles, using the original Shakespearean lines but somehow keeping it hip with a young, relevant-to-now energy — just by being themselves. When they first got into their costumes, they hyped themselves and each other up with, “It’s giving baddie, it’s giving slay” and “Jhenzen, am I tough?” Edie, an eighth grader at Mauro-Sheridan playing Banquo and Siward in Macbeth, told me, “When you start playing a character, you start to see things no one else sees.”
Those in attendance for the performances this week might think they’re seeing double, at least when it comes to the show’s main characters. The roles of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are each played by two actors, halving the lines and responsibilities for the child actors. Before the run-through began, I asked eighth-grader Zaina, one of the Macbeths, whether she was in the first or second half of the show. She looked confused. I started to wonder whether the lines were split in a different way. Nothing could have prepared me for how the shared roles actually played out.
Most of the times “Macbeth” was on stage, both Zaina and the other Macbeth, Marwa, were present, dressed identically. They switched off one line at a time, sometimes speaking in unison. At one point, they even held the same sword. The fluid dance between alternations and synchronization were like a slam poem, an aesthetic wonder.
The same system brought together the two Lady Macbeths, played by students Mariam and Nadia. When it came time for the famous sleepwalking scene, it was both actors who came on stage with nightgowns and candles, speaking dramatically of hallucinated blood on their hands.
“I told my Lady M’s, there’s a specific scene that always stayed with me,” Gonzales told me about that sleepwalking moment. Ever since she learned her lines all those years ago, any time she needed a scene for an audition, that’s the one she would use. And how are Gonzales’s Lady M’s handling the role this year? “I love them, they’re doing great,” Gonzales said, beaming, “They really grasp it.”
Gentle yet clear, often acting out full demonstrations herself, Gonzales gave feedback throughout the day to her cast of engaged, excited students. Her rapport with the cast was incredible, and it was clear how much she understood. After all, she was once in those same shoes.
Zaina, one half of the Macbeth duo, said this was her third year performing Shakespeare at Mauro-Sheridan. I asked her to think back to her first year, back in fifth grade, and she said she was more quiet then and didn’t really project.
And now? “I feel more heard.”
Macbeth is going up this week for public performances from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at Mauro-Sheridan, 191 Fountain St. in Westville, on Tuesday and Thursday (May 3 and 5) as well as an in-school performance Wednesday.
