Shakespearean Education

Students take a bow after a performance.

How many times have you had an entire texting conversation just using Emojis and acronyms, such as “lshmson” (laughing so hard milk shot out nose)? Today deciphering “lolaroltf” (laughing out loud and rolling on the floor) is easier to some than trying to figure out the meaning behind “a honest tale speeds best, being plainly told.”

English majors at even the most prestigious colleges are no longer required to take an “in-depth” Shakespeare class, yet it is a requirement in the Common Core English Language Arts standards throughout most high schools in the United States.

The Washington Post published an article on June 13th where a “veteran” English teacher at Burbank High School in Sacramento, California spoke out about her dislike of Shakespeare and her wish to no longer have to teach it to her students. Ms. Dusbiber wrote in saying “not only do I dislike Shakespeare because of my own personal disinterest in reading stories written in an early form of the English language that I cannot always easily navigate, but there is a world of really exciting literature out there that better speaks to the needs of my very ethnically-diverse and wonderfully curious modern-day students.”

I am aghast! How could anyone feel this way? I absolutely loved studying Shakespeare as a young person. I remember sitting in a circle in my middle school English class and the girls fighting over who gets to read Queen Titania’s part in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  In my theater class we did one-act versions of popular Shakespearean plays. We loved it. We did not use the modern day translations either. We were in middle school, yet the meaning was not lost. It was not “too difficult” nor did it lack diversity. We were acting it out; we each were assigned a character. It was exciting; we were bringing a 400-year-old script to life!

We at the Shakes fully believe in the power of Shakespeare and how important his works are, and we want to bring the same enthusiasm to every student. So many of our common day expressions were coined or derived from the Bard himself.

• “All that glitters is not gold” – Merchant of Venice
• “Put your best foot forward”- King John
• “Break the ice”- Taming of the Shrew
• “Refused to budge an inch”- Measure for Measure/Taming of the Shrew
• “Dead as a doornail”- Henry VI
• “Good riddance” – Trolius and Cressida
• “It was Greek to me”- Julius Caesar
• “In a pickle”- The Tempest
• “Kill with kindness” – Taming of the Shrew
• “Melted into thin air” – The Tempest
• “There’s a method to my madness” – Hamlet
• “What’s done is done”- Macbeth

We have a whole department dedicated to Shakespeare in the classroom. We offer free study guides and edited scripts to aid teachers. We also frequently hold elementary, middle, and high school field trips. Shakespeare Alive! is a workshop facilitated by two Orlando Shakespeare Theater Actor/Educators that allows students to have an interactive experience in the classroom. In the first half, students engage in an interactive plot summary of one of William Shakespeare’s plays. In the second half of the class, 4th and 5th grade students engage in “Insult War” and “Flattery Battle” using vocabulary from Shakespeare’s time. 6th through 12th graders paraphrase Shakespearean text, distinguishing between the denotative and connotative meanings of words. These exercises help to cultivate understanding and to build a connection with the script.

To gain further insight on the situation at hand, I turned to our Director of Education Anne Hering. 

Anne Hering: Shakespeare was not written to be read, it was written to be spoken and heard. Shakespeare wrote in a time of illiteracy. Many people could not read or even had access to books. To study Shakespeare by reading is not the way it was meant to be understood.

Student prepare to watch Romeo and Juliet (2012) at a student matinee.

Cassie Moorhead: What is your reaction to Ms. Dusbiber’s claims Shakespeare’s works are not “diverse” or “enough?

AH: It is not at all true. He wrote about class, the haves and the have-nots. He wrote about the upper class and the lower class, what they had in common and how they were different. He wrote in themes that both the classes could relate to. Shakespeare is perfect for the classroom because it discusses bullying, status, cliques. He wrote about falling in love with someone in the wrong place at the wrong time, grudges, and wanting to have power. Students today can relate to this.

CM: How does “Shakespeare Alive” help students and even teachers?

AH: We use the same methodology as if we were putting on the production ourselves. We teach students how to paraphrase the text into their own common day speech. The students develop an emotional connection to what they are saying as the characters. The students act out a small scene in their paraphrased texts, and then they act out the same scene using the Shakespearean text. They are able to unlock what the characters are feeling and meaning. When performing Shakespeare, the audience will only understand what the characters are saying if the actors do. When we perform Shakespeare at the Shakes, we sit around and paraphrase the script to make sure we’re really understand it, as if it we were saying it in our own vernacular.

CM: So the key to learning Shakespeare is that it’s not meant to just be read?

AH: Students and parents should encourage students to relate to what the characters are saying and feeling. Take them to see a live show or show them the movie. Reading is not enough to experience it; Shakespeare is an oral art form rather than a written one.

Another key is the rhythm. The current hit on Broadway is Hamilton, which is a rap musical about Alexander Hamilton. The words from our current day are used to along with themes of the American Revolution. Shakespeare is like a musical, but instead of breaking into song, you break into verse, into poetry. It has a certain rhythm, which makes it a heightened reality. Kids latch onto the rhythmic nature of his iambic pentameter because it is similar to contemporary music like rap.

As well as our educational workshops, we will be presenting The Adventures of Pericles, which is a new modern-verse adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Pericles, Prince of Tyre. The “translation” is part of Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s new project called “Play On,” where 36 playwrights take on the challenge of writing a modern-verse translation of one of Shakespeare’s plays. It is very important that the project maintained the integrity and depth of the original works, but we hope the modern poetry will help audiences to look at Shakespeare in a new light and be an educational companion piece to the Bard’s work. To get a first look at this revolutionary project, see The Adventures of Pericles at PlayFest on November 7th at 8:30. Then, come see the fully staged production February 24th through March 26th, 2016.

For the purists, The Tempest will be performed using the original text February 10th through March 27th, 2016.

Come see Shakespeare’s works as he intended—performed!

And the answer? To teach of course!

This blog post was written by Marketing Intern Cassie Moorhead.