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ShareHarry Potter films and books might have cast a spell on every school-going child's imagination, but the effect is giving educationists sleepless nights as they worry about rich English literature being sidelined by pop literature for children.
In an effort to generate more enthusiasm among students for various forms of literature, Gundecha Education Academy, Kandivli, has engineered a Shakespeare Festival to recapture lost interest in the Bard. The festival, beginning on Friday, will stage timeless Shakespearean plays till November 10. The inter-school festival will see students don the robes of Julius Caesar and Macbeth and enact pivotal scenes in contemporary style.
"The point here is that people are still reading and performing Shakespeare's plays even after 400-odd years," said Seema Buch, principal. "Will a Harry Potter book or a Star Wars film be read or seen after so many years?"
Students will be exposed to famous characters created by Shakespeare and get to understand the richness of the literature of that era. According to Buch, the GenY teenager --- exposed to the watered-down version of Shakespeare's plays --- feels that the Bard's work is no big deal. "The first reaction you get when you talk to them about the plays is, "Shakespeare wrote some plays... big deal! He's been dead 400 years, so why should we learn about him?"
Students from Std VII to XII will participate in the festival. While Shakespeare festivals are common in high schools abroad, students in India are not exposed much to his plays.
"This festival will help students to appreciate language and literature," Buch said. "It will help them to understand the spectrum of human nature that Shakespeare presented."
