Question about Shakespeare!

[Iamblessed]

How does one go about introducing Shakespeare to uninterested teenagers? I would like them to at least have a little Shakespeare under their belts before they graduate! I love to just read the books but this may not be the best way to go with them. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! :001_smile:

[dirty ethel rackham]

IMO, Shakespeare is meant to be seen and heard, not just read. Have them read retellings and take them to plays. Comedies are usually a good place to start. Some of them do have some bawdy humor, though. If you don't have any plays to see, there are some movies faithful to his works around.

[Iamblessed]

IMO, Shakespeare is meant to be seen and heard, not just read. Have them read retellings and take them to plays. Comedies are usually a good place to start. Some of them do have some bawdy humor, though. If you don't have any plays to see, there are some movies faithful to his works around.

 

Thanks! I had seen there was a couple of Shakespeare movies on Netflix and I will check out the library too! They do like to watch TV :lol:

[IsabelC]

Why do you feel that they should do Shakespeare? Why not tell them your reasons and ask them how they'd prefer to do it?

 

Alternatively, if they find the idea intimidating and/or boring, trying the sneaky approach of showing them some movies that are loosely based on Shakespeare first.

[regentrude]

Shakespeare is best appreciated when watched in a live performance, not when read in a classroom. Live theatre, maybe an outdoor festival, would be nice. There are also many filmed versions available on DVD. For male teenagers, I would start with Henry V with Kenneth Branagh and show them the St. Crispin's speech:

 

 

(they will recognize similarities with Aragorn's speech to his army at the gates of Moria from LOTR)

 

An excellent Hamlet is the one with David Tennant as Hamlet and Patrick Stewart as the king.

 

There are beautiful dramatized readings on audio: The Complete Archangel Shakespeare.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Complete-Arkangel-Shakespeare-Fully-Dramatized/dp/1932219005/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346818353&sr=8-1&keywords=archangel+shakespeare

Edited September 5, 2012 by regentrude

[quark]

Shakespeare in Bits from MindConnex presents each play like an animated graphic novel. We are going to be trying A Midsummer Night's Dream soon (it cost just about $15 and I think it's a one-year license).

 

So far, they have MSND, Julius Caesar, Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth and Hamlet.

[jhschool]

Kenneth Branagh version of Henry V

is excellent! Great speeches, great

fight scenes, great everything!

 

Much Ado About Nothing with Kenneth

Branagh is pretty good too.

 

Midsummer Night's Dream (the one with

Stanley Tucci as Puck) is good. Don't get the nutty one where it looks like Dr.Seuss/Alice in Wonderland.

 

Romeo + Juliet with Leonardo di Caprio and

Clare Danes (?) is really fun to watch.

The Mercutio is a bit much for us but you

can skip that bit. It is a great production.

 

Romeo and Juliet (directed by Zeffirelli)

has a very annoying Romeo but otherwise it's very watchable.

 

The Tempest with Helen Mirren would be good except it has a *very* R rated Ariel and

drunken sailors. We didn't let our DC 14 watch that one. Otherwise it is a very

good production.

 

OH, AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST...

 

Shakespeare The Animated Tales

 

GORGEOUS Russian animation!!!

Beautiful.

Watch them all.

Edited September 5, 2012 by jhschool

[NittanyJen]

You can also get "Shakespeare in Bits" for the ipad.

 

Completely animated, you can have it show subtitles while it is performed, click on words to have them explained, and so forth, or sit back and enjoy the show.

 

It isn't Kenneth Branagh or Patrick Stewart or an outdoor performance in an amphitheater, but it is kind of fun!

 

I have been listening to a Great Courses chat on the development of language, which does point out that watching Shakespeare without studying the play a bit beforehand can lead to frustration, because shades of meaning of even "common" words have changed so much that things we even THINK we understand we get wrong so often.

 

(Think of Juliet crying, "...wherefore art thou Romeo? . . ." So many people think Juliet is screaming "Yo, Romeo, where are you, man?" while he is sitting RIGHT THERE in the weeds under her window. But no, she is asking WHY do you have to be Romeo FREAKING Montague while I am Juliet FREAKING Capulet so we can't get together????") (These are teens, on a serious horomone rush, after all).

 

I am all for doing at least a brief overview of a Shakespeare play before watching it, because the language has shifted so much in the last few hundred years that you can be super intelligent, linguistically knowledgable, and still get quite a bit of it wrong at best, and be completely lost at worst.

[Lizzie in Ma]

IMO, Shakespeare is meant to be seen and heard, not just read. Have them read retellings and take them to plays. Comedies are usually a good place to start. Some of them do have some bawdy humor, though. If you don't have any plays to see, there are some movies faithful to his works around.

 

YES!!

Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing

Twelfth Night

Henry V

Midsummer Night's Dream

If they are Dr. Who fans, you can't go wrong with David Tennant in Much Ado from Digital Theater and Hamlet

My kids loved the class we did last year so much we are continuing this year.

[laughing lioness]

Our kids have loved Usborne's Shakespeare book. It also helps to do a quick overview of whatever production you are watching/going to see. As a child I was dragged to Shakespeare and came away not sure what had been said, the plot, purpose or story-line.

 

My kids know and love Shakespeare and have performed it (see here and here and not all performances are created equal. Some of the dvd's they love and some they can't stand.

Edited September 5, 2012 by laughing lioness

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Another vote for the Tennant/Tate Much Ado About Nothing. I thought they did a very good job of wringing meaning out of the lines with a creative use of timing and expression.

 

We watched the Branaugh/Thompson version first, pausing a couple times to discuss what was happening and to refill popcorn bowls. Then we read it in parts with another family over the course of a couple of sittings. Then we watched the Tennant/Tate version.

 

I thought they got a lot out of seeing it before reading it. And I really liked having them see more than one version and versions that were rather different in setting and emphasis. David Tennant agreeing to duel with Claudio gave me chills.

[JohnC3]

Shakespeare in Bits from MindConnex presents each play like an animated graphic novel. We are going to be trying A Midsummer Night's Dream soon (it cost just about $15 and I think it's a one-year license).

 

So far, they have MSND, Julius Caesar, Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth and Hamlet.

 

In addition: I have a pretty interesting copy of No Fear Shakespeare Hamlet which is a graphic novel. It's put out by Spark Notes.

[BibleBeltCatholicMom]

Um . . . well . . . er . . . oh, okay, put me in for the Horrid Mother Award. My daughter, who now LOVES Shakespeare, got a hold of a (n extensive) list of Shakespearean insults and has loved his work since!

 

She had read several for-children books before that, though. One she really liked was a book of tales that were common at that time and probably inspired Shakespeare or at least were familiar enough to him to feature the story lines in his works.

 

It's probably too young for teens but I still like it and so does my now-teen daughter. http://www.amazon.com/Shakespeares-Storybook-Folk-Tales-Inspired/dp/1841483079/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346863637&sr=8-1&keywords=tales+that+inspired+shakespeare

 

I do agree with others that his plays were meant to be seen BUT we do very much enjoy (what I think may be called) reading in the round. We assign parts and just sit together and read our parts. We don't get up to act our parts or anything, we just read but try to read in character. In face, it is one of our favorite things to do on long winter nights with a fire in the fire place and cocoa or snacks.

[BibleBeltCatholicMom]

I think this is the actual list my daughter had. http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/shake_rule.html

 

If you're the hateful ogre type you might find this funny.;) I don't think so, of course, (way to highbrow and kind) but maybe you will.

 

http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/Shaker/

[aug17girl]

If the American Shakespeare Center on tour is performing near you, they might be worth checking out. Their productions are true to original text, but use a lot of physical humour and music. They are very accessible for teens. If you search for them on youtube, you can find excerpts.

 

http://www.americanshakespearecenter.com/v.php?pg=88

 

The tour schedule is at the bottom of the page.

 

The daytime performances are popular with school groups so if you want to avoid that go in the evening.

[aug17girl]

If the American Shakespeare Center on tour is performing near you, they might be worth checking out. Their productions are true to original text, but use a lot of physical humour and music. They are very accessible for teens. If you search for them on youtube, you can find excerpts.

 

http://www.americanshakespearecenter.com/v.php?pg=88

 

The tour schedule is at the bottom of the page.

 

The daytime performances are popular with school groups so if you want to avoid that go in the evening.

 

I wanted to add that they really wring meaning out of every bit of text. The audience can't help but get it.

[Joan in GE]

In case you have to watch the filmed versions....I know a family that would have sleepovers and the friends would watch different versions of the same play and discuss them. We don't have enough people interested but the idea has always intrigued me...

 

Joan

[Seshet]

This likely won't be a popular suggestion, but I have seen it work. Often, showing them that Shakespeare is still quite relevant helps a lot. This is easily done by first showing them some of the many modern movies based on Shakespeare's plays, like 10 Things I Hate About You (Taming of the Shrew) & Romeo & Juliet with DiCaprio & Danes. This may be enough to get them interested. You can then move to better performances & reading the plays.

 

Another option would be to, instead of starting with the same ones they use in ps, choose ones based on your kids' interests. For ET1, I chose Julius Caesar & Antony & Cleopatra, due to her strong interest in ancient civilizations. I also chose Taming of the Shrew simply because I knew she'd like the story.

 

We did a whole year of English focused on Plays & Poetry. It included the above mentioned Shakespeare plays as well as others (Death of a Salesman, Ibsen, Pygmalion, etc.). We watched multiple versions when possible, as well as reading them. We compared & contrasted the different versions. She now reads Shakespeare (and Ibsen) for fun. Prior to my forcing her to read them for English, she had no interest in Shakespeare or plays in general.

 

Maybe she would have loved Shakespeare, even if I had forced her to start with Romeo & Juliet, like our local schools do. However, I doubt it. I think that starting with ones I knew she would like, went a long way in her gaining an appreciation for Shakespeare right away, instead of just slogging through them the way so many of my classmates did.

[MamaSheep]

Speaking of Tennant and Shakespeare...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHAJ4VFStUE&feature=youtu.be

[Sebastian (a lady)]

In case you have to watch the filmed versions....I know a family that would have sleepovers and the friends would watch different versions of the same play and discuss them. We don't have enough people interested but the idea has always intrigued me...

 

Joan

 

Bring us to Switzerland and we'll sit around and chat Shakespeare with you.:lol:

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I think this is the actual list my daughter had. http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/shake_rule.html

 

If you're the hateful ogre type you might find this funny.;) I don't think so, of course, (way to highbrow and kind) but maybe you will.

 

http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/Shaker/

 

I just handed this list to my son and got a giant hug in return. He's now on the porch practicing.

[beachnut]

IMO, Shakespeare is meant to be seen and heard, not just read. Have them read retellings and take them to plays. Comedies are usually a good place to start.

 

As a VERY brief intro, you might want to check out a few of the free animated films on the Cliff's Notes website: http://www.cliffsnotes.com/CliffsNotes-Films.html. They offer a great overview of the plot, main characters, etc. They currently feature 6 plays: Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, Julius Caesara, A Midsummer Night's Dream.

 

After this introduction, then I'd move into seeing a play (if possible) or renting a good movie version. If there's enough interest after that, then read the play. If not, then at least they've been exposed to the Bard.

 

FYI - I've got pre-teen/teenage boys, and we went to see a live production of Romeo & Juliet. The local company did a great job of making it relevant, relatable and understandable. For example, the actual language remained unchanged, but they played a song by Pink during one of the party/dance scenes, which made the whole situation more fun & relatable.

[NittanyJen]

Um . . . well . . . er . . . oh, okay, put me in for the Horrid Mother Award. My daughter, who now LOVES Shakespeare, got a hold of a (n extensive) list of Shakespearean insults and has loved his work since!

.

 

You have a long way to go to catch me ;). My boys' favorite way to study King Arthur and the middle ages is through the lens of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. They are well on their way to memorizing the insults hurled at Arthur by the French.

 

And now, for something completely different.... We take you back to Shakespeare... Which is actually pronounced Throat-Warbler-Mangrove... But only if you first bring me ... A shrubbery!

[Iamblessed]

WOW!!! Thanks everyone for all the wonderful advice and links! I definately have lots to go on and am really getting excited about this now! :)

[Lucy the Valiant]

Another super great resource for teens is the Folger Shakespeare Library's free lesson plans - they get kids up and out of their desks / tables - moving umbrellas around like the trees of Dunsinane in Macbeth, a handy combo-guide for those ever-popular insults, real (relevant!) discussions concerning power and its limits (Caesar) . . . fun stuff. And usually in pretty manageable bits. Classy and all free!

[BibleBeltCatholicMom]

I think this is the actual list my daughter had. http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/shake_rule.html

 

If you're the hateful ogre type you might find this funny.;) I don't think so, of course, (way to highbrow and kind) but maybe you will.

 

http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/Shaker/

 

Warning! I didn't check out that link carefully enough. Yes, my daughter had the upper part of that list but I hadn't seen the part at the bottom added by the host of that site. It has Wh . . .son. Just a heads up so you can use your own discretion. Sorry about that.

[goldberry]

DD not interested either. This year we are doing a Hamlet in simple English, where it has the original on one side and the plain English on the other. I'm going to have her read those so she gets the story, then watch Hamlet with David Tennant (she LOVES Doctor Who).

 

She actually ASKED me when she gets to see Hamlet this year!

 

If that goes well I may add the Tennant Much Ado About Nothing.