Summer 2005

E S379M • Teaching Shakespeare through Performance

Course Description

Designed for undergraduates in teaching programs as well as teachers already in the field, the course explores the techniques, approaches, and value of performance in teaching. All class meetings are workshops in performance, using poetry, prose, and plays, as well as pedagogical essays as subject materials. Students should be prepared for warm-up exercises, improvisations, games, and active participation in all performance projects. On occasion, the class will study at The Winedale Historical Center, near Round Top, during the 2005 Shakespeare at Winedale program. During this residential phase of the course, students have the opportunity of working with the summer Shakespeare at Winedale class, the Outreach to Schools class, and the Breakthrough program as well as with former Shakespeare at Winedale students who have experience teaching Shakespeare through performance at the secondary school level.

The performance approach emphasizes:
* The importance of language, especially the rhetorical or affective power of words
* Critical and imaginative interpretive skills
* Performance as a social art, a ritual form of interaction among individuals, and an act of exploration leading to self-discovery
* Embodiment and understanding of other, including gender, class, culture, race, ability, and body type

Grading Policy

Writing (Journal, two brief interpretive essays, and a final project on planning a performance approach to teaching Shakespeare): 50%
Workshop/class participation: 50%

Texts

Goffman, The Performance of Self in Everyday Life (Doubleday)
Shakespeare, William: The Complete Works of Shakespeare
Course supplement: A collection of poetry, prose, essays, and pedagogical materials.

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