This year's eighteen-state, three-play tour by the American Shakespeare Center of Staunton, Virginia, bears the stamp of Jane Jongeward, '14, even though she is firmly settled in her Kenyon classes. During her summer internship on the ASC education staff, Jongeward helped develop workshops to be presented at tour stops for students and community groups.

In one of the workshops—part of a series titled "Curing ShakesFear"—she mined the texts of The Winter's Tale, A Midsummer Night's Dream and 'Tis Pity She's a Whore (by Shakespeare contemporary John Ford) for rhythm irregularities in the verse and other subtle clues about character and staging. Her work culminated in handouts for workshop participants and a hand-glued textbook binder for the tour manager.

The internship was a natural for the self-described "Shakesnerd" who returned to her hometown to work at a theater that she as been attending since she was a child. "I've been going to plays there with my mother for most of my life and been to three of the center's summer camps," Jongeward said.

The American Shakespeare Center seeks to make Shakespeare and the English Renaissance more accessible to audiences through performance and education. It is one of the nation's few repertory companies that stages primarily Shakespeare year-round. "To work at the ASC, you must have a deep, abiding love for Shakespeare," Jongeward said.

Jongeward also harbors a deep, abiding love for molecular biology, and Kenyon seemed to be the perfect place to pursue her disparate passions. With her major still undeclared, she is balancing her schedule between English and science classes. "I wanted to go to a school where if I suddenly decided I wanted to be a neurosurgeon or English professor, the academics could accommodate me," she said. "I chose Kenyon because it has strong English, drama, and science, a combination that's hard to find elsewhere."