Deer Park hosted the fourth annual Long Island Student Shakespeare Festival on April 30, welcoming more than 200 students from the district’s high school and middle school as well as from other local schools for a day of performances of scenes from Shakespeare’s plays such as “Troilus and Cressida,” music from Shakespeare’s times and other Shakespeare-related activities. The event also featured a speech by guest artist Emily Davis, founder of the Messenger Theatre Company and an acclaimed Shakespeare consultant.

Deer Park’s director of fine and performing arts, Dr. Jeff Dailey, began the Long Island Student Shakespeare Festival in 2012 to serve the theater education needs of Nassau and Suffolk students.