Playing with Shakespeare
A theatrical approach to teaching Shakespeare
by John Clark
Playing with Shakespeare looks at all aspects of Shakespeare and his plays, with insights, information and activities and provides an approach to teaching Shakespeare’s plays in a way that generates a sense of fun and enjoyment that is essential to good theatre. Written by one of Australia’s most experienced directors of Shakespeare’s plays, it shows how theatre practitioners look at Shakespeare, and at the techniques directors and actors use to make the plays come alive.
There are practical activities throughout the book which will help students see and understand how the plays work as theatre, rather than simply words on a page and to connect with the play and develop a personal involvement. .
The activities are intended in the first place to be used in a classroom, in an English or drama lesson, but teachers intending to produce one of Shakespeare’s plays will get added value from the material in this book. The activities and exercises place the student in the role of the director who has to work out how to make the play exciting, how to talk to an actor about character and action and how to brief the lighting, costume and set designers.
John Clark is one of the more experienced practitioners of Shakespeare and drama generally. He was head of The National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) for 32 years, and has been responsible for numerous productions of Shakespeare’s plays and other works in Australia and overseas.
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CONTENTS 1. DISCOVERING SHAKESPEARE Imagining Shakespeare Selecting plays Published texts Popular entertainment
2. SHAKESPEARE’S STORIES Story-telling Shakespeare’s audience Shakespeare’s theatre Female roles and boy actors Shakespeare’s stories Reading the play Imagining the story Playing with the story Inventing stories Story-telling techniques Prologues Epilogues Dramatic structure Length Acts and scenes What kind of story is it?
3. SHAKESPEARE’S LANGUAGE Words, words, words Language and education Shakespeare’s vocabulary Household words Using a dictionary Shakespeare’s bawdy You, thou and O Punctuation Character and text Poetry, prose and verse Blank verse Iambic pentameters Other metres Figures of speech Sonnets Prose Shakespeare on acting Grammar
4. ACTING SHAKESPEARE Actor, character and text Asking questions Who am I? What am I doing? Actions Who am I talking to? Soliloquies Where am I? When am I? Why am I doing it? Imagining in detail Super-objectives Finding the journey
5. DIRECTING SHAKESPEARE The role of the director Different approaches Theatrical research What is the play about? The world of the play The production concept Designing the production – scenery Designing the production – costumes The design process Light and sound Casting the production
6. SHAKESPEARE IN PERFORMANCE Living Shakespeare The history of Hamlet The history of Shylock The history of Henry V Shakespeare in Australia
Appendix 1. SHAKESPEARE ON FILM Appendix 2. SHAKESPEARE MUSIC-THEATRE Appendix 3. SHAKESPEARE BIBLIOGRAPHY
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