(Photo by Teresa Castracane) 

Liz Atwood gets her boys excited about the arts by taking them to see a play with lots of blood and gore in this week's Tween Tuesday: 

At last I've discovered the secret for how to get tween and teen boys excited about the arts: make sure there’s plenty of blood and gore.

Over the weekend I took my kids to see the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s production of Titus Andronicus. This is one of Shakespeare’s earliest and most obscure works. I’d never even heard of it until I received the postcard in the mail several weeks ago advertising the performance.

I read a little about it — including the warning it might not be suitable for youngsters. This is a play in which hands are severed, people are stabbed and throats are slit — all on stage. Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s production had the bonus of being set in the ruins of the Patapsco Female Institute, a former girls’ school in Ellicott City that is said to be haunted.

Ghosts, blood, fights -- the boys readily agreed to go. And neither Shakespearean English or the nearly three-hour run time dampened their enthusiasm. It was as gory as promised with blood shooting everywhere. The boys were thrilled, not only with the performance, but the glimpse they had of the actors behind the scene. They could see them relaxing, eating, reading and dressing for their next performances. My younger son was happy to see one actor strapping on a bag of "blood" that would be poured out on the stage.

As for the play itself, I am no critic, but it seemed to me that Shakespeare was drawing upon his inner teenage youth to create such a spectacle. But while the play wasn't much to my liking, at least I can count one small victory in my effort expose the boys to a little culture.