Earl Marriott Secondary Loves Its Shakespeare Theatre

This fall, about 30 students from Earl Marriott Secondary in Surrey will be attending the Tony Award-winning Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon. Earl Marriott students have been attending this trip for more than five years now and they look forward to it every time. “As a school group, we take students who have an avid interest in literature and theatre. [It] allows us to enhance our knowledge of production values [and] broaden our exposure to various pieces of drama,” says sponsor teacher Nancy Pylypiuk.

The school will be seeing five plays: Servant of Two Masters, Macbeth, The Music Man, Paradise Lost and Equivocation. They will also be attending a design workshop of Macbeth and even a backstage tour of the three amazing theatres in which “[one] theatre is outdoors and meant to replicate a traditional Elizabethan theatre,” explains Pylypiuk.

Founded in 1935, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival runs annually from February to October and produces a variety of plays –not just Shakespeare –from numerous playwrights. It is amongst the oldest and largest non-profit theatre groups, hosting around 10 productions within three different theatres.

Earl Marriott Secondary plans to continue with this wonderful tradition as long as Ashland, Oregon continues hosting this exciting and educational festival.