Insights

"Give me a child at an impressionable age, and they shall be mine for life," says the teacher in the motion picture The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Few would argue that much of what we become as adults is planted in our youth. For some, it will be a lifelong love (or hatred) of the New York Yankees; for others, an aversion to Brussels sprouts. But, in the best cases, we can become appreciators of the pleasures of the arts: music, dance and theater.

Sadly, public funding for the arts is not as available as we would like. Many of us over the age of 45 were fortunate; we benefited from subsidized arts programs when we went to school. But there is a lost generation that has grown up with 22-minute TV sitcoms supplemented by eight minutes of commercials. Perhaps it was members of this generation that voted It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp best original song at last year’s Academy Awards. I am sure Ira Gershwin, Oscar Hammerstein and Lorenz Hart were turning in their graves. One simply has to look at the sea of white hair the next time you go to the theater or symphony to realize something is terribly wrong. Where are the young people?

In this regard, a small miracle happened last month on Broadway ... Broadway in downtown Fort Myers, that is. In a series of lunch meetings at the Veranda restaurant (on Broadway), a group of community leaders formed a program called the "World Classic Initiative." Through this program, the Florida Repertory Theatre will open a fully professional production of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet next September. Better yet, half of the 24 performances will be exclusively for the 12 high schools of Lee County. Each school will be able to invite 393 of its students to each of these special shows free of charge.

Special thanks must go to Lee County School Superintendent, James Browder, who helped lead the charge and also arranged for transportation for all students at no cost to the program. Marshall Bower, director of the Foundation for Lee County Schools, and his board, agreed to fund the program in part. It was local bank president and Florida Rep board member David Hall with Lee County commissioner Bob Janes who facilitated this group’s getting together. Soon, instead of just reading Romeo and Juliet, nearly 5,000 high school students will see it in its full glory—on a stage with professional actors, designers and directors working their magic. For some, this may be the only play they see in their lives. For others, it will be the first of many. Who knows the effect? But how positive it will be!

The World Classic Initiative has made a pledge to fund a program every year for the schools of Lee County. It won’t be just Hamlet, Julius Caesar and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. World Classics will also range from Medea to The Crucible and from Lysistrata to The Glass Menagerie—with perhaps a work or two by George Bernard Shaw somewhere in between.

Robert Cacioppo is the theater director at Florida Repertory Theatre in Fort Myers and a member of Gulfshore Life’s Community Advisory Board.