reposted with permission from the Folger Theatre Blog “Grumble, Grumble.” “Snort” “Whine” “Complaint” “But it’s soooo eeeearly!” “This is ungodly.” “Oh, no…I’m going to need a nap!” “Is there coffee?” And so it goes… It’s a student matinee of our Romeo and Juliet at the Folger Theatre and our call is practically the butt crack of dawn. We have… Continue Reading »
Posts Categorized: Shakespeare/performance
At the end of last week’s Teacher Tuesday, I shared a link to a video, Interpreting Shakespeare, with our Master Teacher Sue Biondo-Hench. In one section of the video, around 3:10, Sue breaks her students into groups to interpret and perform a single passage from Henry IV, part 1. They each interpret how performing one character’s… Continue Reading »
Inspired, today, by David Tennant‘s affirmation in the power of performing Shakespeare, today we’re rounding up some of our favorite Teacher to Teacher videos about performance in the classroom. Getting students on their feet is one of the most important things we stress about working with Shakespeare’s language – they are, after all, plays! What… Continue Reading »
~by Jessica Lander On the grass behind the theater – once a fire station – two teenagers embraced each other and slow-danced. They wore sheepish grins as they took each other’s hands, swaying and revolving to the music. Iron & Wine and Graffiti6 and Elliot Smith floated from my portable speakers. Curious dog walkers with… Continue Reading »
Yesterday I stumbled upon this video from Australia’s ABC in 2011 about Shakespeare and his hip relevance to today’s audience. Excited, I started the video, and felt my face twist into a confused squint. A lot of their statements are great! Shakespeare was a great writer. His plays have survived for centuries. His language can… Continue Reading »
Every year the schools participating in our local outreach programs, Shakespeare Steps Out and Shakespeare for a New Generation, have to select one of Shakespeare’s plays to perform at their respective Festivals. There are always the big populars: Midsummer, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet – but sometimes the teachers are looking for something a little different, or something they… Continue Reading »
One of the things we regularly like to see is students taking command of Shakespeare’s language as they say it. Showing us what the words mean to them, and making the character saying these words their own. That doesn’t always mean seeing a whole play exactly as Shakespeare wrote it. We’ve seen ownership take many… Continue Reading »
This afternoon we sat in on the design presentations for Folger Theatre‘s upcoming production of Romeo and Juliet. From a practical point of view, we need to see how the Theatre space will be changed so that we can adjust for our programs which take place onstage; but from the perspective of a fan of Shakespeare,… Continue Reading »
~by Christopher Shamburg, New Jersey City University Shakespeare can be a powerful tool for the cognitive, emotional, social, and linguistic development of all kids. I saw this phenomenon when working with the students of A. Harry Moore School in Jersey City, a comprehensive school for students ages 3-21 with severe medical, physical, and cognitive disabilities…. Continue Reading »
Hello once again from your friend Louis Butelli, most recently Feste in Folger Theatre’s Twelfth Night. We closed our show on June 9 after a great run: thanks to everybody who came out to see us. I’m back at the Folger to participate in an exciting new project – immersive audio recordings of the full… Continue Reading »
