Shakespeare: Words & Actions

A workshop by Mike LoMonico

February 2015

Folger Shakespeare Library

Located on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.

Home to the world’s largest and finest collection of Shakespeare materials and major collections of other rare Renaissance books, manuscripts, and works of art

256,000 books60,000 manuscripts250,000 playbills200 oil paintings

50,000 drawings, watercolors, prints, and photographs; and a wealth of other materials, including musical instruments, costumes, and films.

Folger Shakespeare Theater

The Great Hall

First Folio

First Folio 1623 Contains 36 plays Published 7 years after Shakespeare died Half of the plays had not previously been

published, including Macbeth, Twelfth Night and The Taming of the Shrew

Only 232 copies of the book, which sold for 20 shillings (about $200 in 1623) are thought to exist.

Folger Shakespeare Library has 82 copies Kodama Library at Meisei University in

Tokyo has 12 

Folger Shakespeare Library

Folger Making Shakespeare Editions Text Available Free for Non-Commercial Use

"The most widely used electronic version of the plays—the Globe Edition (1864)—is over a century old, and I believe the Folger Editions will take its place as the electronic edition of record for Shakespeare's plays.“ — Michael Witmore

Director, Folger Shakespeare Library

Folger Education

Folger Shakespeare Library

Some Random Thoughts about Teaching Shakespeare

 

It is more important to get kids to like Shakespeare than it is to get them to understand every word.

 

The best way to get kids to like Shakespeare is by getting them to perform Shakespeare.

 

Performing Shakespeare does not mean having students sit at their desks reading out loud, or having students stand in front of the room reading out loud, or the teacher acting out scenes for the class.

Acting out a scene is a form of close reading on your feet.

Sometimes it is better to do just part of a play rather than the whole play. 

There are wonderful plays to teach other than the Big 4 

The best way to use video may not always be showing the DVD from the beginning to the end.

 

A few tricks and gimmicks are not enough to make a Shakespeare learning experience significant.

 

If you’re using a “modern” version of a Shakespeare play, you’re not teaching Shakespeare.

When students use Web 2.0 technology to learn Shakespeare, they are usually using performance and doing a close reading of the text.

Studying Shakespeare’s life doesn’t really help students understand the plays.

 

Designing Globe Theaters out of sugar cubes and Popsicle sticks, making Elizabethan newspapers, designing costumes, doing a scavenger hunt on the Internet, or doing a report on Elizabethan sanitary conditions has nothing to do with a student’s appreciation of Shakespeare’s language.

O

O

int. Expressing (according to intonation) surprise, frustration, discomfort, longing, disappointment, sorrow, relief, hesitation, etc.

Used mainly in imperative, optative, or exclamatory sentences or phrases, as in O take me back again!, O for another glimpse of it!, O the pity of it!, O dear!; often also emphatically in O yes, O no, O indeed, etc

The Oxford English Dictionary

Subtext

sub text  /ˈ–noun ⋅the underlying or implicit meaning, as of a literary work.

Tone A particular quality, pitch, modulation,

or inflexion of the voice expressing or indicating affirmation, interrogation, hesitation, decision, or some feeling or emotion; vocal expression.

--The Oxford English Dictionary

O

surprised

Angry

afraid

exhausted

sad

suspicious

excited

awe

lusty

contempt

StressRelative loudness or force of vocal utterance; a greater degree of vocal force characterizing one syllable as compared with other syllables of the word, or one part of a syllable as compared with the rest; stress-accent. Also, superior loudness of voice as a means of emphasizing one or more of the words of a sentence more than the rest.

Oxford English Dictionary

I didn’t say he killed our King

I didn’t say he killed our King

I didn’t say he killed our King

I didn’t say he killed our King

I didn’t say he killed our King

I didn’t say he killed our King

I didn’t say he killed our King

I shall, in all my best, obey you, Madam.

Hamlet 1.2

Some lines from Shakespeare

O, how I love thee! how I dote on thee!

(lusty)

O, for a stone-bow, to hit him in the eye!

(angry)

O, I am out of breath in this fond chase!

(exhausted)

O, I am fortune’s fool!

(regret)

O, speak again, bright angel!

(lusty)

O lamentable day!

(misery)

O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!

(excited)

O me, O me! My child, my only life.

(distraught)

O, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?

(disappointed)

O God! did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's blood?

(fear)

O God! did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's blood?

(horror)

O God! did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's blood?

(sorrow)

O God! did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's blood?

(anger)

O God! did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's blood?

O God! did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's blood?

O God! did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's blood?

O God! did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's blood?

O God! did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's blood?

O God! did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's blood?

Our play is done!(relief)

Folger Shakespeare Library

This presentation is available at www.slideshare.net (search: mikelomo)

Contact me at mike@lomonico.com