Do NowComplete the first three questions on your worksheet…

(1) What do you KNOW about Shakespeare? (2) What do you want to know about Shakespeare? (3) What makes you nervous about reading Shakespeare?

Shake-who???

Lived from 1564-1616

English Playwright, Poet, Actor(Ms. Gaffey’s bestie)

He wrote 38 plays, over 100 poems, acted on stage and owned his own theater company and Theater.

The life and times of William Shakespeare…

In the 16th Century, life was…

1.Hard! There was no electricity, cars, telephones, grocery stores, malls, or TV. Most people could not read!

2.Dirty! Most people never bathed or brushed their teeth. Roads were made of dirt, and people travelled by horseback

3.Flammable! Everything was made of wood, and there was no indoor lights or heating or stoves (so there was lots of fire, fire everywhere).

Yet things were never dull…

Elizabethan Entertainment included:

1. Wars2. Plague3. Royal Scandal and Intrigue4. Witch-hunts5. Gambling, Prostitution, Narcotics 6. The THEATER!!

Queen Elizabeth I never married. She ruled England for 60 years by her self. Can you say: GIRL-POWER?

The THEATER:• No lights or microphones• No sets• Comedies, Tragedies, Histories

The GLOBE:* Shakespeare started as an actor and eventually came to lead his own acting crew and own his own theater, The GLOBE.

PROLOGUE     Two households, both alike in dignity,

    In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,     From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,

    Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.     From forth the fatal loins of these two foes     A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;     Whole misadventured piteous overthrows

    Do with their death bury their parents' strife.     The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,

    And the continuance of their parents' rage,     Which, but their children's end, nought could

remove,     Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;     The which if you with patient ears attend,

    What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

Welcome to fair Verona, a small dysfunctional city in Italy, where we lay our scene. The streets of Verona are rife with crime. Two rival families are caught in a murderous, all out smackdown. The Montagues and Capulets just can’t seem to keep from killing each other and anybody else who gets caught in the middle so it’s important that you, dear reader, get the lay of the land.

TEA PARTY!!!