In the words of William Shakespeare, "parting is such sweet sorrow." And as the curtain closes on a 31-year tradition at Rochester Memorial School, sixth grade teacher Danni Kleiman prepares to say goodbye.

On May 5, Kleiman directed her final Shakespeare production, ending with the same play she started with – "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

“I think I’m going to miss teaching more than I want to admit,” Kleiman said. “I’m going to miss the kids. It’s the enjoyment you get from being around them. They’re so funny. I’m going to miss them.”

Kleiman has directed 31 plays over the years at RMS, with 29 of them being Shakespeare.

Her first-ever play at RMS was “Peter Pan,” but then she received a book called “Shake Hands with Shakespeare” that inspired her to do “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Thus, a tradition was born.

This tradition was broken only one other time, when she had students perform “Arsenic and Old Lace,” however “I quickly wanted to get back to Shakespeare,” she said.

The book she had received had stripped down versions of plays, but Kleiman soon realized that too much of the language was lost.

“I started cutting the plays down myself,” she said. “It’s funny because the kids don’t always know what they’re saying.”

Despite this, she said part of the reason she stuck with Shakespeare is because she found kids grasped the stories.

“I saw ten to twelve year olds and they understood ‘The Taming of the Shrew,’” Kleiman said. “I think that’s what it was. I saw how they embraced the stories.”

Kleiman casts all the plays, and the fifth and sixth graders have to try out for parts. Not everyone gets one.

“Sometimes I pick the play for the kids I have,” she said. “Or I pick it for the mood I’m in.”

Kleiman said she was never much of an actor herself, but really got into the behind the scenes aspect of theater. The trademark of her shows are the elaborate sets and detailed costumes, but Kleiman said it took some time to get to that point.

“It took a big learning curve,” she said. “But now it pretty much runs like clock work. I have a lot of help.”

Kleiman isn’t sure if anyone will take over the responsibilities of directing a play, but she knows it’s a possibility.

“You never know,” she said. “But I don’t know about Shakespeare. That’s kind of my thing.”