After teaching Hamlet, Henry V, and Macbeth to three separate English classes, I realized that there was true interest in these amazing plays from my students. Now, don’t get me wrong - I’m not saying that all of my students were knocking down my door, bribing me with lattes, begging, “Please, please, please let us read more Shakespeare!” But there were a significant number who truly wanted to get into the Bard more than time would allow in our classes. So I asked what they thought of attending an afterschool Shakespeare Reading Group, and in a school with around 55 students, I had between 10 and 14 kids sign up…and attend regularly throughout the school year!

We started by reading some of the sonnets, and I also introduced historical information about Shakespeare, his life and times, and the other playwrights that wrote during the 16th century. Beginning with the sonnets rather than a play made for a really good introduction to Shakespeare’s language, particularly the idea of iambic pentameter. It was helpful to get the meter into their heads by exploring the sonnets, where it is pretty obvious that there is a set rhyme scheme and meter, as opposed to the plays, where it can be difficult at times to find. And what I discovered later was that this preparation was very beneficial to those kids who received parts in Much Ado About Nothing…which I’ll tell you about in another post! At the time I started the afterschool reading group, I had no idea I’d be directing a play in a few short months!

Once we finished reading sonnets, we started reading Much Ado About Nothing because many of the kids were familiar with the Kenneth Branagh film and absolutely loved it! With that kind of enthusiasm, I knew reading Much Ado would be a hit for these students. They were all so excited to read aloud the words they had heard the actors and actresses say in the film, and they also came to realize that most film versions of his plays do a great deal of cutting (except for Branagh’s Hamlet, of course). The students enjoyed reading parts that they had never heard before!

In the middle of reading the play, I also started a Shakespeare Festival, which allowed students from each of my English classes to memorize scenes from the plays they read. At the festival our Shakespeare Reading Group performed the first scene of Much Ado. During rehearsals for the festival and afterschool reading of Much Ado, my students came to the realization that not only is reading Shakespeare aloud fun…but so is acting it out! So one day as we were nearing the end of Much Ado, one of my students said, “Hey! Why don’t we put on a play? Why don’t we do Much Ado this summer?”

I was told later by one of my students that my face lit up like I had just been given the best Christmas present ever! It was one of those moments…those teaching moments…those “Oh my goodness, I’ve reached my students!” moments…I realized that by some miracle I had shown a group of kids, aged 11-17, that Shakespeare can actually be fun. And that’s what it’s all about!

In my next post I’ll mention a bit about how I did auditions for Much Ado last year, as well as how I’m getting the kids ready to audition for The Taming of the Shrew in just a couple of weeks!

Posted Sat, 16 Feb 2008 21:16:14 and filed under Much Ado About Nothing, Schools, Staging Shakespeare, Shakespeare Festivals, Education, Hamlet, Henry V, Macbeth. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.