Workshop Approach to Teaching Shakespeare

Reading Shakespeare is difficult, no doubt about it. However, casting Shakespeare off as unreadable or trudging through his antiquated words and rhymes is not necessary either. There are other methods, if we believe Patricia K. Meszaros, who encourages the teaching of Shakespeare workshop-style with emphasis on what she calls “creative dramatics.”

In her article, “Notes on a Workshop Approach to Shakespeare,” Meszaros says that often the plight of students results from a “silent reading” of Shakespeare, in which students suffer through the difficulty and glaze over important plot points and characterizations. Using her article as a guide, I will explore a workshop-style plan for teaching Shakespeare, using Midsummer Night’s Dream as an example.


First of all, do not marry the annotated textbook. Meszaros says that the “heavily annotated school text […] meant to enhance [students’] understanding and appreciation of the text, frequently only succeeds in increasing their frustration.” Therefore, use the annotated text as a tool rather than a vehicle for teaching Shakespeare.


Second of all, emphasize "creative dramatics." Meszaros’s preference for “creative dramatics” illustrates the important of performance-based teaching. Especially for those students who are not linguistically-gifted, watching someone else’s facial expressions, for example, helps them understand the meanings of the words much better.

There are a number of films of Midsummer Night's Dream to use as models, but remember that every performance is interpretive, so your learners do not have to merely mimic other actors’
performances, though watching them is helpful.

J.J Henry, in his performance of Bottom’s Dream in Act 4, Scene 1 of Dream, is very expressive, both orally and physically.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kizd2sg5CUE

Kevin Kline’s version of Act 4, Scene 1, Bottom’s Dream, is another good example of an expressive performance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llDzj7hIG38&feature=related



Watching a variety of performances of a scene helps students understand the meaning behind
the words based on actors’ facial expressions and bodily movements. After watching a few interpretations, you can act out a scene with your students, allowing them to interpret the words as they see fit. I would recommend first watching other scenes before your performance; otherwise, students might only read the words on the page and fail to apply any emotions and expressions in the scene. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The first step is getting through the play!

During the first day of teaching Shakespeare in a workshop-style, Meszaros instructed her
learners that they would all be part of a Shakespeare company, which meant that they weren’t all required to act, but they had to involve themselves somehow. I would argue that Shakespeare needn’t be performed by an individual for that person to understand a play. Some learners are able to understand based on the “creative dramatics” of others. However, these types of learners could help the home-based Shakespeare production by being assigned different jobs such as scene decorating, costuming, staging, directing, filming, etc. as long as they are an active participant on a level that is most comfortable and natural to them.

Of course, it is important for all participants to understand the basic plot of the play. An easy way to do this, without trudging through the difficult language is to acquire a recorded version of the play with which to follow along. Meszaros encouraged her students “to listen as they read, and to finish the play in one sitting.”

Next, choose certain scenes to re-read. This can be a collective decision based on which scenes “stand out” to your learners or how many players you have available. Staging in Meszaros’s class was, she says, determined by other students. In the same way, your learners can decide how a scene could be staged.

An important distinction must be made though. Meszaros, though supportive of “creative dramatics,” stresses that scenes need not be performed, per say. Rather, students read and place themselves on the “stage,” so full-on acting performances are not necessary, only engaged reading and kinesthetic involvement.

This kind of engaged reading comes after becoming familiar with the text. “Listening to all the plays on tapes,” says Meszaros, “allowed them gradually to feel more comfortable with the sound of Shakespearean verse. The excitement of working out the physical action of a difficult scene seems to have stimulated a desire to get the whole effect by hearing as well as seeing what the author had written.”


With Dream, Meszaros found that students “performing” scenes and staging their characters help them to understand the imbalance between the characters. Specifically, when two
students read Act 1, Scene 1 between Theseus and Hippolyta, the entrance of the character Egues threw the couple “off-balance,” as Meszaros notes. Imagine the possibilities when staging the scenes with Lysander, Helena, Hermia, and Demetrius! Thus, in a silent reading, these types of issues never occur, as the reader can simply graze over the lines, but when the scene are enlivened with a living cast of players, the dynamics are more easily understood.


While a workshop method is generally unconventional (but then, so is homeschooling!),
Meszaros says that her workshop students gained a deeper understanding and appreciation of the Shakespearean texts than her traditional students in lecture classes. Furthermore, she declares that her students “learned a little about textual problems, a great deal about characterization in drama, and even more, perhaps, about the dramatic structure of Shakespeare’s plays.”

This workshop approach can certainly work in the homeschool realm, with families, friends,
and co-op groups. What seems most vital to the success of this method includes:

· listening of plays on audio tapes/cds as students read along, preferably in one sitting.
· Students staging scenes as they see fit.
· Allowing students to interpret characterizations based on the text and placement of
characters.
·Comfort-level and cooperation of the group in “playing with” Shakespeare’s plays.

Meszaros, Patricia K. "Notes on a Workshop Approach to Shakespeare." Shakespeare Quarterly. 25: 2. (1974) 188-197. JSTOR. Web.