intros for students

These assemblies and in-class lessons can help engage with the Bard, while giving their teachers confidence in the teaching of Shakespeare (oh, and there's a just-for-fun presentation as well!)

 

Introduction to Blank Verse and the Sonnet

10-40 students -- 45 min: $60

Introduces students to the sonnet, with attention paid to iambic pentameter, structure, and rhyme scheme. Close reading Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 (“My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun…”) follows and ties together the concepts presented.

[note: requires space enough for at least 10 attendees to be used as examples for the audience]

 

Shakespeare in Practice: Scansion and Character (Parts One & Two)

10-40 students -- 45 min: $60 (each part)

A perfect workshop for a drama class or one about to begin study of a Shakespeare play, this session uses close reading of the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet (part one) and the “To be or not to be” soliloquy from Hamlet to uncover both the emotion and physicality of the speaker (part two) to uncover both the emotion and physicality of the speaker. Focus is paid to scansion and figurative language.

[note: requires space enough for at least 10 attendees to be used as examples for the audience]

 

Shakespeare in Practice [FOUR PARTS: Once More… in a Loop; Living Statues; That’s My Cue!; and Speak the Speech (two parts by itself)]

10-40 students -- 45 min: $60 (each part)

Perfect for a drama class, these sessions use:

• the Henry V “Once more unto the breach” speech to show students how to approach Shakespearean text, using scansion, research, and simple playing with delivery to uncover the character, personality, and motivation of the speaker
• body awareness and movement to allow students to embody emotion, language, and speeches from Shakespeare
• the concept of a “player’s cue script” to introduce a Shakespeare scene in a way that demands attention from and adds interaction and activity to the participants, with focus is paid to scansion, context, and vocabulary
• the concept of rhetorical devices to provide students a deeper understanding of a set speech from Shakespeare

[note: requires space enough for at least 10 attendees to be used as examples for the audience]

[note: these workshops can be taken individually (save for the two parts of "Speak the Speech"); contact Bill to discuss scheduling and multi-part discounts]

 

Chopping Down the Tree, One Cut at a Time

(or “Family Ties in Shakespeare’s History Tetralogies [abridged]”)

10-50 teachers -- 90 minutes:  $150

Join Bill for an interactive discussion of the family relationships in Shakespeare’s English history tetralogies. Setting up the context for the beginning of the Bard’s cycle, Richard II, then moving through the “Henriad” (both Parts of Henry IV, and Henry V) and the depiction of both the close of the Hundred Years’ War and the War of the Roses (the three Parts of Henry VI), and culminating in the rise of the Tudor house in Richard III, this fun and fast-paced 90-minute look is based on attendee interaction.

Determined by participant selections, Bill will present not only the history in the plays, but Shakespeare’s contemporary events that shaped the plays’ composition.

[note: a small table, a few chairs, and a large whiteboard]