MONTGOMERY W.Va. (WVDN) — Students from the Davis Stuart school in Lewisburg will attend Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” at Greenbrier Valley Theatre later this month, and they may watch the actors more closely than most. So says Beach Vickers, founding artistic director of the Shakespeare Studio that arranged for them to attend a student matinee.
Vickers and three other volunteers from the Montgomery-based theater group led the school’s eighth through twelfth graders in seven workshops in July about how to perform Shakespeare’s works themselves, according to Vickers.
“We introduced the students to theater basics like vocal projection and enunciation, mime, mask-making, and even appreciation of Shakespeare’s rhythm and rhymes by reciting a sonnet of his like a rap,” he added.
A native of Montgomery, Vickers has performed Shakespeare plays in California, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, the actor said.
The class presented a showcase for the Davis Stuart staff and representatives from project facilitators, including the state’s Department of Health and Human Services, Board of Education, and Department of Arts, History and Culture, he said.
As a follow-up, the students are scheduled see two professional performances of “Macbeth” this month [October 2025]. One is at GVT and the other by the state’s only professional Shakespeare troupe, the Rustic Mechanicals from Clarksburg, who volunteered to perform in the school’s dining hall, said Vickers.
“All the world’s a stage, even a school cafeteria,” he quipped.
Davis Stuart is a social service agency housing juveniles whom courts have removed from their homes to continue their education under the auspices of the Office of Diversion and Transition of the State Board of Education.
Vickers said he believes the students’ exposure to theater might not make them actors, but can stimulate creativity and other attributes useful in any future pursuits.
“I think the program has a lot of value,” said Lowell Galford, a teacher at Davis Stuart. “It helps them to kind of come out of their shyness and be able to see themselves as able to stand up and speak in front of others and actually perform.”
“We want to make such programs available to other adjudicated juveniles,” said Vickers. “We hope our success will inspire other artists to find ways to reach underserved students.”
For more information, email shakesstud@gmail.com or see the Facebook page named “The Shakespeare Studio of Montgomery, WV.”
