ADAMS TWP — Five Mars School District students hope the time spent in a local basement twice a week will improve their chances of success in an upcoming Shakespeare competition.

Michelle Bruno uses the bulk of her nicely finished basement in the Seaton Crest development to provide free acting classes to Kurt Brubach, Nick Ellis, Luke Whittaker, and her sons, Nico and Anthony Bruno.

Four of the young men participated in a Shakespeare acting workshop offered by the Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama in January, and all five are currently participating in the Pittsburgh Public Theater’s 2015 Shakespeare Scene and Monologue Competition at the O’Reilly Theater in Pittsburgh.

For 20 years, Michelle Bruno taught drama in the Pine-Richland School District before the program was discontinued. Bruno now teaches literature at the Pine-Richland High School, but keeps her hand in drama by sharing her knowledge with the five Mars students.

“I’m so glad their parents let me take them two times a week,” Bruno said. “We’re doing really interesting work this year. They’re not pretending to act but actually acting.”

On a Friday afternoon, the three non-Brunos arrived at the house after school for their biweekly lessons.

Bruno begins warm-ups by participating in various activities with the five boys that are meant to stimulate their focus and prepare their voices for theatrical speaking. Standing in a circle, the group played Zip Zap Zop, did vocalizations systems, walked like witches and repeated phrases from Bruno such as “To sit in solemn silence on a dull, dark duck.”

Once Bruno determined the boys were sufficiently warmed up, she sent them into various corners of her large basement to prepare for the characters they will play in their monologue at the Shakespeare competition.

“You! Go over there and get angry,” Bruno told one. “You! Over there and get old.”

Eighth-grader Nico Bruno and sophomore Nick Ellis portrayed Pyramus and Thisbe from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” as Michelle Bruno tweaked their monologue by changing their positions on the “stage” and offering other advice.

Brubach, a sixth-grader, brandishing a plastic sword, projected his take on Mercutio from “Romeo and Juliet” to every corner of the basement.

Whittaker, also a sixth-grader, took his turn as Friar Laurence from “Romeo and Juliet.”

Sixth-grader Anthony Bruno took on Romeo’s famous balcony scene for his monologue.

The students have different reasons for studying with the energetic Michelle Bruno, who hopes the Mars School District will institute a drama program in its curriculum.

Anthony Bruno said that because of the difficulty involved in reading and understanding Shakespeare, CMU School of Drama officials gave the students a list of definitions to no longer recognizable words used in the bard’s plays.

Anthony has participated in two other Shakespeare competitions.

“The first year I was timid,” Anthony said. “Then the second year, I made the judges laugh.”

He has studied ballet and hip hop and appeared as an extra in the film “Southpaw” starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Forest Whitaker.

Kurt played “Twelfth Night’s” Malvolio at one competition in a large Captain Hook hat, a bullfighter shirt, tights and shoes with ribbons.

“It was fun,” he recalled. “I got to prance around stage in the wacky outfit.”

He attends Theater Troop twice a week with the Keystone Broadway Kids at the Regional Learning Alliance, has performed in four plays at the Kean Theater, and enjoys improvisation.

Nick decided to participate in Bruno’s acting classes and the Shakespeare competition to improve his public speaking skills.

“I was really nervous at first, but now not at all,” he said.

He looks forward with some trepidation to the women’s clothing he will wear while portraying Thisbe at the upcoming competition.

“I’m wearing a dress and a wig and this nasty lipstick,” he said.

His Pyramus, played by Nico, laughed at the thought of Nick, the largest of the actors in his mother’s classes, dressed up as Thisbe.

“It’s pretty funny, especially with him as a girl,” Nico said.

This will mark Nico’s third trip to the annual Shakespeare competition, where he thinks Mars will succeed.

“We’re really getting into it this year and getting into the characters,” Nico said.

Luke, who has participated in the Shakespeare competition twice before, summed up the entire group’s reason for working with Michelle Bruno and taking part in the Shakespeare competition.

“You get to be this whole different person,” he said.