~by Josh Cabat It is a trope with which we have become extremely familiar, from endless reality shows higher quality fare like Modern Family and The Office. A scene is played out, only to be interrupted by what in the business is known as a cutaway. Here, the character breaks the fourth wall, addresses the… Continue Reading »
Posts Categorized: Shakespeare/teaching-shakespeare-2
Twelve of Shakespeare’s plays, including Hamlet, Julius Caesar, King Lear, Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, The Tempest, and Twelfth Night were made available in digital format earlier this month by the Folger Shakespeare Library. The response has been tremendously… Continue Reading »
It’s true that you never know the way(s) in which you’ll be affected by the works of William Shakespeare. Last summer, the Folger Shakespeare Library hosted twenty-five teachers from around the country who participated in Folger Education’s Teaching Shakespeare Institute. This four-week program where teachers explore four plays from the viewpoints of scholarship, pedagogy, and… Continue Reading »
Folger Theater will soon start rehearsals for Henry V. The Folger Education team meets ahead of the rehearsal kick-off to brainstorm ideas for the study guide. We create a study guide for each of the Shakespeare plays that gets produced at the Folger and archive them on our study guide web page for teachers to… Continue Reading »
Taking a page out of Carol Ann’s book, I sat in on a couple of our High School Fellowship sessions recently. During this program, students study three of Shakespeare’s plays as scholars, actors, and audience members. Guest speakers come in throughout the semester to discuss a new perspective with them as they progress through the… Continue Reading »
~by Jessica Lander (re-printed with permission) Where better to teach Macbeth than in a monsoon? When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightening, or in rain? That’s exactly what we did one muggy July afternoon when the ominous skies finally split, releasing a torrential downpour. For an hour already we had been rehearsing indoors… Continue Reading »
~by Carol Ann Lloyd Stanger I met with a terrific group of bi-lingual students today who came to tour the Folger and see the London exhibition. When I asked them what they already knew about Shakespeare, one of the first things they said was “He wrote in really old English that we don’t understand.” It… Continue Reading »
Thanks to the efforts of Folger Theatre, the Globe’s Theatre’s production of Hamlet is currently in residence at the Folger. The reviews have been good, and audiences are deeply engaged in the work. This collaboration between the Folger and the Globe has prompted Folger Education to re-release four video podcasts that focus on the play, including an insider’s guide for all… Continue Reading »
To quote our Bill’s Buddies mantra: “Shakespeare wrote plays, which means they were meant to be Seen and Heard.” Not read silently to oneself. And not simply read aloud in a round robin in class. Part of the experience is watching how characters interact, and how the words can be used to inform action. Getting students on… Continue Reading »
The situation may seem familiar: A sixth grade classroom, the text of Macbeth, and 30 blank slates ready to be writ upon. Jessica Lander used a free six-week life-applications session to teach students Shakespeare. The students had to have picked her class in order to take part, and while the class was required, they wouldn’t have… Continue Reading »
