a workshop approach to:

 Introducing Shakespeare

Each book in this series, written by a range of experienced teachers, contains five of the most popular plays in each category.

Macbeth - Creative Work Ideas          

Julius Caesar   

A Midsummer Night's Dream   

The Merchant of Venice          

Romeo and Juliet

 There is a wide range of activities for each play providing abundant opportunities for activities which allow students to work towards a thorough understanding of the plays as theatre and literature, towards a range of interpretations of the plays and to explore ways in which a script can be transformed into a stage play.

 Most plays include activities dealing with

Ø      Introduction to the play

Ø      language

Ø      staging and performance

Ø      character

Ø      plot

Ø      themes and issues

Ø      dramatic structure

 Introducing Shakespeare includes plays which are often studied by students in junior and middle secondary years, with an introduction offering general ideas and approaches for introducing students to Shakespeare.

 All activities are photocopiable.

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                        click here for sample pages of Introducing Shakespeare

 see also

A Workshop Approach to Shakespeare's Histories

A Workshop Approach to The Comedies

A Workshop Approach to The Tragedies

 individual Shakespeare Workshop titles

Contents (sample from one of the five plays)

Introduction

Getting Started

Preparatory Activity 1 -         Choral Speaking

Preparatory Activity 2 -         Shakespearian Insults

Preparatory Activity 3 -         Kaleidoscope:           Macbeth

The Merchant of Venice

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Julius Caesar

Romeo and Juliet

Preparatory Activity 4 - Group Speech Macbeth

The Merchant of Venice

Julius Caesar

Preparatory Activity 5 - Crowd Scene

Merchant of Venice

1. Mulling Over The Merchant                      A Shakespeare Journal

2. Parallels                                                     Real life connections

3. Historical Background                              Dramatic context

4. Silence is only commendable                  Dramatic performance

5. "Hath Not a Jew Eyes?"                           Racial prejudice

6. Blocking                                                     Production

7. For Love or Money                                   Themes

8. Sequencing                                               Language

9. Visual Presentation of Relationships     Character

10. Words, Words, Words                           Word choice

11. Interior Duologues                                  Character and performance

12. A Weekend in the Country or ...            Two worlds of the play

13. What's In a Name?                                 Antonio

14. Bystanders                                              Imaginative recreation

15. "If my fortune be not crost ..                   " Father/child relationships

16. Let Music Sound                                     Music in the play

1 7 . Before and After                                   Dramatic additions

18. "Let me play the fool"                             Comic elements

19. Designers at Work                                 New settings

20. "Time yet for a hundred indecisions"   Student as director

21 Portia Faces Her Critics                         Character interpretation

.22 In The Style Of ...                                     Reformulations

23 Out of Africa ...                                         Cultural reinterpretations

24 "Gentle Jew" or "Inexorable Dog"          Interpretations of Shylock