By Jessica Coleman -- Daily Staff Writer

FRONT ROYAL — Students from Skyline and Warren County high schools will be hopping the pond this fall to visit Shakespeare's homeland and learn about the bard on his own turf.

Richard Follett, an English and theatre arts teacher at Skyline, said he organized the weeklong trip that will leave in November for students from both schools so that they can experience firsthand what they are learning in the classroom.

"It's a whole level of participation in the world from what we have offered in the past ... getting those words up off those pages and getting them to understand the context of those words in the world," Follet said.

The trip's itinerary includes several theatrical, cultural, historical and literary events, including visits to Stonehenge; the Tower of London; Stratford-upon-Avon, where Shakespeare was born; and, perhaps most notably, a workshop with the actors of the Globe Theatre.

"From everything I'm told, we will actually be able to go up on the stage, which is normally closed to tourists," Follett said.

Skyline students Brittney Bass and Kelsi Calhoun, both 16, said they have been working on Shakespearean monologues and scenes to practice for their debuts at the Globe Theatre and to get a better understanding of Shakespeare.

"I'm very excited," Calhoun said. "[The actors at the Globe] just know what they're doing."

"Not many actors can say they've been to the Globe Theatre," Bass added.

The students said they are also excited about the many other cultural experiences that London will have to offer, including the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, the red telephone booths and the many shopping options.

But the people going on the trip are not strictly drama students. Follett said he felt it was important to have a diverse cast of characters on the Shakespearean voyage. Students interested in the program were required to write an essay expressing their interest in the trip, and the youths with the best essays were selected by a panel of teachers and administrators. Eight students from Warren County High, 24 students from Skyline and 13 adult chaperones are signed up for the trip.

"It was a unanimous feeling that we wanted a real cross-section of our student community," Follett said.

Currently, students and faculty are raising money for the trip. Follett said it will cost about $2,000 per student to attend the excursion, with the school raising about half the money and the students coming up with the rest.

"This cannot happen without community support," Follet said. "We wanted the kids to have to raise some of the money on their own."

So the students will be having car washes, candy sales and yard sales, among other fundraising activities to raise the money for the trip.

Bass wrote the first check of her life for $400 recently as a down payment on the trip. She said she has been raising funds through the school and saving her own money to be able to go on the trip, but the sacrifice is well worth it.

"I was kind of sad because it was so much money, but it was good," Bass said.

Follet said he chose to go during the school year rather than during the summer so that the experience and the classroom teaching would coincide and overlap, he added.

"If we do it during the school year, we come back and there's all this re-sponse," Follett said. "We want them to bring it back to the academic environment. I'm hoping they will learn that everything they learn applies to the real world as a global entity."

For more information about the fundraising efforts or how to help, contact Follett at 631-0366 or rfollett@wcps.k12.va.us.

* Contact Jessica Coleman at jcoleman@nvdaily.com