STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Idaho Shakespeare Festival’s original production “The Chronicles of Sherlock Holmes & Dr. Watson” had just come to an end on the stage of The Liberty Theatre.

Now it was time for the youth of the Wood River Valley, who had crowded into the seats on the floor and in the balcony, to put their sleuth hats on and train their imaginary magnifying glasses on all the props that the Boise touring company had brought with them.

Young’uns scrambled onto the stage, examining how a blue light illuminated things on the set that couldn’t be seen with a naked eye.

“Sherlock,” aka Elke Myers, uses a blue light to illuminate secrets in the set.

They watched as Elke Myers, who played Sherlock, showed them how a dog made out of stringy mop threads meant to resemble moss could be made to move—then, of course, they petted it.

And they asked all kinds of questions as Keenan Roark showed them the portraits that had been made for the production.

Now, Idaho Shakespeare Festival is back—this time to present the Bard’s “Twelfth Night.”

The Shakespeare Festival is partnering with The Liberty Theatre Company to bring a free hour-long staging of Shakespeare’s classic comedy to young audiences at 6:30 p.m. Friday, April 4, at The Liberty Theatre in Hailey.

Dakotah Brown, who played Dr. Watson, said that he had been a football guy when a production of “Hamlet” geared for youth turned him onto theater.

“Twelfth Night” is full of guffaws as it brings to life the story of Orsino, who is in love with Olivia. He enlists the aid of a shipwrecked Viola, who has disguised herself as a man, to woo Olivia for him. But, alas, Olivia falls in love with the man Viola is pretending to be, even as Viola is falling in love with Orsino.

Things only get complicated further when Olivia’s brother Sebastian falls for Olivia, not realizing that the person in disguise is his twin sister.

The play is recommended for middle and high school students, with free tickets available at https://www.libertytheatrecompany.org/. A student study guide for the production can be found on the website.

In a Q&A following the last production, actors told the youngsters that they memorized the script by themselves before meeting together for three weeks of rehearsal.

Keenan Roark discusses the portraits that set artists made for the production.

The play that the children saw in March loosely followed Conan Doyle’s “Hound of the Baskervilles,” about a mythical hound dog believed to haunt a family for years.

“The amazing thing about Sherlock Holmes is that the stories are so old that they’re in what we call ‘public domain’ so we were able to create a new version,” actor Dakotah Brown told the youngsters. “We took an iconic story that everyone knows and wrote it for the audience we knew would see it.”

Idaho Shakespeare Festival provided a study guide that taught the kids about such things as red herrings—misleading clues or distractions used to divert attention away from the real issue or answer. It taught about things like superstitions and moors--wet, boggy ground.

It also challenged them with skills to use in their own detective work and puzzles.

Keenan Roark portrayed several characters in “The Chronicles of Sherlock and Dr. Watson.”

This is the fourth production Idaho Shakespeare Festival has presented in partnership with TLTC as TLTC expands its attempts to reach youth. Last year it presented “The Legend of Finn McCoy” and “A Midsummer’s Night Dream.”

“Kids respond well to live theater, and this is interactive and fun,” said Matt Musgrove, a member of The Liberty Theater Company. “Parents have been telling us we need more for the kids—so this is a way to provide it.’

Several forward-looking kids in the audience asked what Idaho Shakespeare Festival plans to bring back next year.

“We’re not sure what it’s going to be at this point,” they were told.

The performances are made possible by National Endowment for the Arts, Idaho Commission on the Arts, J.R. Simplot Company Foundation, Idaho Community Foundation, Idaho Power, U.S. Bank Foundation and others.