Life, for Shakespeare actors, can be a drag

During the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603), when many of Shakespeare's best-known works were written and performed, women were not allowed to act in plays by English law.

On Wednesday, a group of Horizon Honors High School sophomores got a first-hand look at Shakespearean drama during the Renaissance Era.

"It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be," said 15-year-old David Wikoff, fresh from his outfit as a female character in one of the Bard's earlier works.

Students in Chris Britt's sophomore English class culminated a six-week study of Shakespeare with selected performances from The Taming of the Shrew, complete with gender-bending costumes. No one was exempt, of course: some female students also donned the duds of the male characters they were playing.

"It wasn't very hard," said Britt, referring to convincing a group of image-conscious teenagers to drag it up for dusty drama. "The small class size helps them feel more confident with each other."

Well, for the most part: these were generally non-drama students.

"It was really funny, but I'd be so nervous if I went up there," said 15-year-old Kayte Volden, who didn't cross-dress for the play. "I was already nervous, and I was just (Shrew lead character) Kate."

Britt said she also used the dress-up act as a tool to teach Elizabethan acting in England, where women were barred from the stage until 1660.

"It was judged to be unseemly for a woman to undertake such a profession," says literature from the London-based recreation of the stage that housed many of Shakespeare's plays, the Globe Theatre. "Young boys were therefore hired to act in the female roles."

That was a job that Wikoff said he wouldn't exactly covet as a regular gig.

"That would have been a hard job," he laughed.

Indeed, as the Globe Theatre curators note: "The costumes used for the female characters were extremely elaborate, reflecting the clothes worn during the Elizabethan era... It would have therefore taken some considerable time, and the help of a dresser, to dress a boy actor in the costume of a female."