Though the event’s not in West Seattle, the Young Shakespeare Workshop‘s director Darren Lay lives here, so here’s the word on what’s coming up next month:

“Assist me some extemporal god of Rhyme, for I
am sure I shall turn Sonnet.” — Don Armado, Love’s Labor’s Lost

A marathon performance of poetry will grace Seattle stages this summer. All 154 of William Shakespeare’s sonnets — short poems which he wrote for his friends and loved ones — will be performed on Saturday, August 1st to mark the 400th anniversary of their publication.

This sonnet marathon is hosted by Young Shakespeare Workshop, a company of talented teenagers gathered from Seattle and beyond who spend their summers steeped in Shakespeare’s words. Instead of swimming, camping and playing soccer, these teenagers are learning to fence, to speak with authority, and to interpret and express the multiple layers of meaning embedded in Shakespeare’s text. Their hard work culminates in a first year recital performance and a touring production presented by returning students each summer. Many of the participants return to Young Shakespeare Workshop year after year to perform in the summer production or to mentor younger players.

This summer’s Young Shakespeare Workshop production is the beloved romantic comedy, Twelfth Night. It continues through mid-August at various venues. Young Shakespeare Workshop’s sonnet marathon will take place on Saturday, August 1 from 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Chapel Performance Space in the Good Shepherd Center in Wallingford, 4649 Wallingford Ave. N. The audience is invited to not only “sponsor” a sonnet for $30 but to step up and speak or read a sonnet aloud if they wish. The money will be used to support Young Shakespeare Workshop, which is entirely funded by grants and donations and charges no tuition. Young Shakespeare Workshop was created in 1992 by distinguished stage director Edward Payson Call, who wanted to encourage young people to develop a love of the English language by immersing them in the words of its greatest practitioner. Since 1998 it has been directed by Darren Lay, a professional actor, director and teacher [and West Seattle resident] whose scholarly research on Shakespeare has been published in the Times Literary Supplement (UK).

For several years, Young Shakespeare Workshop has been nationally recognized as a Coming Up Taller semifinalist by the President’s Committee on the Arts & Humanities (www.pcah.gov/cut.htm). It has also received the Mayor’s Race & Social Justice Award twice from the city of Seattle for its aggressive outreach to Spanish-speaking youth.