Friday, November 30, 2007
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Teachers TV Shakespeare Week
3 - 9 December
A week of programmes dedicated to Britain’s greatest playwright – William Shakespeare. We focus on the different ways teachers can help their pupils embrace difficult texts. Programmes on offer include:
Teaching with Bayley: To Learn or not to Learn
In this programme John Bayley and Nick, a deputy head of English, develop a range of strategies to engage the students based around a more patient and explicit explanation of the lesson objectives. On John's advice Nick also plays to the students' particular learning styles, asking the class to represent the plot of the play either in words, music, as a rap song or in pictures. As a consequence, the class is much more focused.
http://www.teachers.tv/video/3048
Macbeth in the Classroom
Language is always the hardest aspect of teaching Shakespeare to young people, but this series aims to overcome such difficulties by focusing on key teaching ideas and techniques that will engage pupils with Shakespeare.
KS3 Macbeth in the Classroom 1 - http://www.teachers.tv/video/132
KS3 Macbeth in the Classroom 2 - http://www.teachers.tv/video/2733
Macbeth
This highly acclaimed 1998 production places the action in a contemporary and gritty setting, with the self-destructive Macbeth and his Lady reborn in an industrialised and apocalyptic war zone.
http://www.teachers.tv/video/23752
KS3 English: The Tempest – Drama Strategies
RSC Learning Network teacher Jude Graham uses drama strategies to compare the character of Prospero in two key scenes of the Tempest. She helps a class pinpoint key changes in the plot by examining the rhythm of Shakespeare’s poetry, and uses improvisation to help the class further understand the character’s motives.
http://www.teachers.tv/video/23577
KS3 English: The Tempest at Bolsover School
It’s The Tempest, but not as we know it. Year 9 students at The Bolsover School use rap, break-dancing and Gamelan music to tell their own version of Shakespeare’s play. Between extracts of the show, break-dancer and rapper Charlie takes us through the rehearsals and classroom preparations.
http://www.teachers.tv/video/23598
KS3 English: Much Ado in the Classroom
English teachers across West Berkshire are pinning their hopes on drama strategies in a bid to improve the results of students taking their KS3 Shakespeare paper. According to English consultant Frances Gregory, teachers have often taught Shakespeare's plays as books to be read rather than plays to be performed. Frances believes Much Ado is a gift for drama strategies, as students can readily identify with two key scenes showing conflict between Benedict and Beatrice.
http://www.teachers.tv/video/23542
KS3 English: Much Ado at Brays Grove
Students from Brays Grove Community School join forces with MOPA Theatre Company to perform a 15-minute version of Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing, featuring themes of evil, comedy and love. The cast of volunteers is selected from a watching audience of Year 9 students. While only a few words from the actual text are used, students are encouraged to express their reaction to events in their own language.
http://www.teachers.tv/video/23581
KS3 English: Richard III – RSC Approaches
Jacqui O'Hanlon from the Learning Department at the Royal Shakespeare Company offers practical strategies for teachers of Richard III in a specially commissioned workshop for Teachers TV. RSC practitioner Rachel Gartside takes the teachers through collective role plays, encouraging them to find words to connect to the dilemmas faced by their characters, and offering an egalitarian way to tackle the nervousness of reading in public.
http://www.teachers.tv/video/23564
3 - 9 December
A week of programmes dedicated to Britain’s greatest playwright – William Shakespeare. We focus on the different ways teachers can help their pupils embrace difficult texts. Programmes on offer include:
Teaching with Bayley: To Learn or not to Learn
In this programme John Bayley and Nick, a deputy head of English, develop a range of strategies to engage the students based around a more patient and explicit explanation of the lesson objectives. On John's advice Nick also plays to the students' particular learning styles, asking the class to represent the plot of the play either in words, music, as a rap song or in pictures. As a consequence, the class is much more focused.
http://www.teachers.tv/video/3048
Macbeth in the Classroom
Language is always the hardest aspect of teaching Shakespeare to young people, but this series aims to overcome such difficulties by focusing on key teaching ideas and techniques that will engage pupils with Shakespeare.
KS3 Macbeth in the Classroom 1 - http://www.teachers.tv/video/132
KS3 Macbeth in the Classroom 2 - http://www.teachers.tv/video/2733
Macbeth
This highly acclaimed 1998 production places the action in a contemporary and gritty setting, with the self-destructive Macbeth and his Lady reborn in an industrialised and apocalyptic war zone.
http://www.teachers.tv/video/23752
KS3 English: The Tempest – Drama Strategies
RSC Learning Network teacher Jude Graham uses drama strategies to compare the character of Prospero in two key scenes of the Tempest. She helps a class pinpoint key changes in the plot by examining the rhythm of Shakespeare’s poetry, and uses improvisation to help the class further understand the character’s motives.
http://www.teachers.tv/video/23577
KS3 English: The Tempest at Bolsover School
It’s The Tempest, but not as we know it. Year 9 students at The Bolsover School use rap, break-dancing and Gamelan music to tell their own version of Shakespeare’s play. Between extracts of the show, break-dancer and rapper Charlie takes us through the rehearsals and classroom preparations.
http://www.teachers.tv/video/23598
KS3 English: Much Ado in the Classroom
English teachers across West Berkshire are pinning their hopes on drama strategies in a bid to improve the results of students taking their KS3 Shakespeare paper. According to English consultant Frances Gregory, teachers have often taught Shakespeare's plays as books to be read rather than plays to be performed. Frances believes Much Ado is a gift for drama strategies, as students can readily identify with two key scenes showing conflict between Benedict and Beatrice.
http://www.teachers.tv/video/23542
KS3 English: Much Ado at Brays Grove
Students from Brays Grove Community School join forces with MOPA Theatre Company to perform a 15-minute version of Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing, featuring themes of evil, comedy and love. The cast of volunteers is selected from a watching audience of Year 9 students. While only a few words from the actual text are used, students are encouraged to express their reaction to events in their own language.
http://www.teachers.tv/video/23581
KS3 English: Richard III – RSC Approaches
Jacqui O'Hanlon from the Learning Department at the Royal Shakespeare Company offers practical strategies for teachers of Richard III in a specially commissioned workshop for Teachers TV. RSC practitioner Rachel Gartside takes the teachers through collective role plays, encouraging them to find words to connect to the dilemmas faced by their characters, and offering an egalitarian way to tackle the nervousness of reading in public.
http://www.teachers.tv/video/23564
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Big ambitions for Shakespeare’s Globe in 2008 | Official London Theatre Guide
Big ambitions for Shakespeare’s Globe in 2008
Dominic Dromgoole has announced an ambitious new season for Shakespeare’s Globe in 2008, which kicks off earlier than usual on 23 April, Shakespeare’s birthday, with the tragedy King Lear.
Presented under the banner Totus Mundus, thought to have been part of the motto of the original Globe – Totus mundus agit histrionem (The whole world is a playhouse) – the season comprises four Shakespeare plays, two new commissions, two touring productions and one new production by a visiting company.
Dominic Dromgoole has announced an ambitious new season for Shakespeare’s Globe in 2008, which kicks off earlier than usual on 23 April, Shakespeare’s birthday, with the tragedy King Lear.
Presented under the banner Totus Mundus, thought to have been part of the motto of the original Globe – Totus mundus agit histrionem (The whole world is a playhouse) – the season comprises four Shakespeare plays, two new commissions, two touring productions and one new production by a visiting company.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
BBC to Air All 37 Shakespeare Plays
LONDON, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- The BBC is embarking on an ambitious project to produce new versions of all 37 of Shakespeare's plays over the next 12 years, employing an ensemble cast.The BBC originally presented Shakespearean works 30 years ago in a widely heralded seven-year series.This time around, the BBC enlisted Oscar-winner Sam Mendes to produce the entire series. Among the notable stars being called upon to act in the Bard's plays are Judi Dench, Jude Law, Ian McKellen and Kate Winslet, The Sunday Telegraph reported Sunday.
LONDON, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- The BBC is embarking on an ambitious project to produce new versions of all 37 of Shakespeare's plays over the next 12 years, employing an ensemble cast.The BBC originally presented Shakespearean works 30 years ago in a widely heralded seven-year series.This time around, the BBC enlisted Oscar-winner Sam Mendes to produce the entire series. Among the notable stars being called upon to act in the Bard's plays are Judi Dench, Jude Law, Ian McKellen and Kate Winslet, The Sunday Telegraph reported Sunday.
Sunday, November 04, 2007
A Rebellious Bard on Display in AustraliaIt's shaping up as a subversive year for the Bard in Melbourne in 2008. Around Easter, two women will play Venus and Adonis, and by year's end, 10 men from Bell Shakespeare's first-ever all-male cast will try to make sense of senseless violence
Shakespeare in China: "Only in dreams will Shakespeare meet our Super Boy"
While a number of small independent companies are making commercial comedies about current social issues, the National Theater Company of China performs Shakespeare's classic A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Poly Theater until November 11.
While a number of small independent companies are making commercial comedies about current social issues, the National Theater Company of China performs Shakespeare's classic A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Poly Theater until November 11.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Bawdy face of the Bard’s London - Times Online
Bawdy face of the Bard’s London - Times Online
A long-neglected document started this writer off on his latest piece of literary detective work
The story begins with a sheet of greyish paper, housed unceremoniously with others in a cardboard box at the National Archives in Kew. Though slightly mouldered at one edge, it is in remarkably good condition after nearly four centuries. It is mostly filled with the handwriting of an unknown Jacobean law clerk, but what makes it special is the rather hurried-looking signature at the bottom: “Willm Shaks”.
A long-neglected document started this writer off on his latest piece of literary detective work
The story begins with a sheet of greyish paper, housed unceremoniously with others in a cardboard box at the National Archives in Kew. Though slightly mouldered at one edge, it is in remarkably good condition after nearly four centuries. It is mostly filled with the handwriting of an unknown Jacobean law clerk, but what makes it special is the rather hurried-looking signature at the bottom: “Willm Shaks”.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Nicholas Hytner talks about Much Ado ...
Nicholas Hytner talks about Much Ado
The artistic director of the National Theatre talks to Heather Neill in detail about Much Ado About Nothing, his new revival starring Simon Russell Beale and Zoe Wanamaker, which previews at the Olivier Theatre from 10 December. More info: www.nationaltheatre.org.uk "
The artistic director of the National Theatre talks to Heather Neill in detail about Much Ado About Nothing, his new revival starring Simon Russell Beale and Zoe Wanamaker, which previews at the Olivier Theatre from 10 December. More info: www.nationaltheatre.org.uk "
Winston-Salem Journal | Unkindest Cut
Unkindest Cut
To require studying Shakespeare or not to require: That is the question
Something is rotten in the state ... of North Carolina. Actually, the rottenness goes well beyond North Carolina, but the problem particular to our state is the subject of a recent report out from The John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, in Raleigh. The report discloses the appalling truth that about half the colleges and universities in North Carolina, public and private, will grant a bachelor's degree in English to a student who has never taken a course in Shakespeare. O, what men dare do! ... What men daily do, not knowing what they do!
To require studying Shakespeare or not to require: That is the question
Something is rotten in the state ... of North Carolina. Actually, the rottenness goes well beyond North Carolina, but the problem particular to our state is the subject of a recent report out from The John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, in Raleigh. The report discloses the appalling truth that about half the colleges and universities in North Carolina, public and private, will grant a bachelor's degree in English to a student who has never taken a course in Shakespeare. O, what men dare do! ... What men daily do, not knowing what they do!
Saturday, October 06, 2007
Thursday, October 04, 2007
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
The Associated Press: School Halts `Shakespeare (Abridged)'
The Associated Press: School Halts `Shakespeare (Abridged)'
MESA, Ariz. (AP) — It was supposed to be a two-hour Shakespearean comedy show attended by 700 sixth- through 12th-graders.
But it was not to be.
About 40 minutes into a touring company's performance of "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)," a Higley Unified School District official halted the show Monday at a performing arts center.
MESA, Ariz. (AP) — It was supposed to be a two-hour Shakespearean comedy show attended by 700 sixth- through 12th-graders.
But it was not to be.
About 40 minutes into a touring company's performance of "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)," a Higley Unified School District official halted the show Monday at a performing arts center.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
In high school, when Miss Grundy rubbed your adolescent nose in Shakespeare, she was perhaps unaware that the Bard of Avon had ye pottye mouthe.
With more than four centuries of language shifts and Shakespeare's unmatched genius for puns and double-entendre, most readers today, unlike those of his time, skim past it.
But help has arrived in a book, "Filthy Shakespeare. Shakespeare's Most Outrageous Sexual Puns" by Oxford PhD Pauline Kiernan.
Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, London: Return of the Bard » great travel with virtual vacations
Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, London: Return of the Bard
Virtual Vacation's mission is to explore the most beautiful places in the world and bring you the most beautiful travel pics on the Internet. Eric has posted some lovely pictures of the London Globe with a few tidbits of information about it.
Virtual Vacation's mission is to explore the most beautiful places in the world and bring you the most beautiful travel pics on the Internet. Eric has posted some lovely pictures of the London Globe with a few tidbits of information about it.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Boom for Bard Jobs?
Boom for Bard Jobs?
Casting at Shakespeare fests doth steer up and down.
By Brad Weismann DENVER
Is the Bard in a boom? In certain respects, the answer seems to be yes. Nearly 100 organizations are listed as members of the Shakespeare Theatre Association of America (www.staaonline.org), and many others specialize in classical theatre. As for whether this translates into more work for actors, the proliferation of companies makes it difficult to track job growth, even for Actors' Equity Association.
Casting at Shakespeare fests doth steer up and down.
By Brad Weismann DENVER
Is the Bard in a boom? In certain respects, the answer seems to be yes. Nearly 100 organizations are listed as members of the Shakespeare Theatre Association of America (www.staaonline.org), and many others specialize in classical theatre. As for whether this translates into more work for actors, the proliferation of companies makes it difficult to track job growth, even for Actors' Equity Association.
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Friday, September 21, 2007
Ben Kingsley has secured the rights to turn a novel about William Shakespeare into a movie and stage production. The actor will co-produce and star as the writer in the film version of Will, based on the upcoming historical book by Christopher Rush about Shakespeare's meeting with his lawyer on his deathbed.
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