Shakespeare In Three Steps

Shakespeare in Three Steps

How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare

A foolproof, enormously fun method of teaching your children the classic works of William Shakespeare, by a Tony Award–winning playwright—now featuring two new chapters “You and your children will be transformed by the magic and mystery of Shakespeare and his stories in an instant.”—Sir Derek Jacobi, CBE Winner of the Falstaff Award for Best Shakespeare Book To know some Shakespeare provides a head start in life. His plays are among the great bedrocks of Western civilization and contain the finest writing of the past 450 years. Many of the best novels, plays, poems, and films in the English language produced since Shakespeare’s death in 1616—from Pride and Prejudice to The Godfather—are heavily influenced by Shakespeare’s stories, characters, language, and themes. In How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare, acclaimed playwright Ken Ludwig provides the tools you need to inspire an understanding, and a love, of Shakespeare’s works in your children, and to have fun together along the way. Ken Ludwig devised his friendly, easy-to-master methods while teaching his own children. Beginning with memorizing short passages from the plays, his technique then instills children with cultural references they will utilize for years to come. Ludwig’s approach includes understanding of the time period and implications of Shakespeare’s diction as well as the invaluable lessons behind his words and stories. Colorfully incorporating the history of Shakespearean theater and society, How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare guides readers on an informed and adventurous journey through the world in which the Bard wrote. This book’s simple process allows anyone to impart to children the wisdom of plays like A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet. And there’s fun to be had throughout. Shakespeare novices and experts and readers of all ages will each find something delightfully irresistible in How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare.

Shakespeare On Stage and Off

Today, debates about the cultural role of the humanities and the arts are roiling. Responding to renewed calls to reassess the prominence of canonical writers, Shakespeare On Stage and Off introduces new perspectives on why and how William Shakespeare still matters. Lively and accessible, the book considers what it means to play, work, and live with Shakespeare in the twenty-first century. Contributors - including Antoni Cimolino, artistic director of the Stratford Festival - engage with contemporary stagings of the plays, from a Trump-like Julius Caesar in New York City to a black Iago in Stratford-upon-Avon and a female Hamlet on the Toronto stage, and explore the effect of performance practices on understandings of identity, death, love, race, gender, class, and culture. Providing an original approach to thinking about Shakespeare, some essays ask how the knowledge and skills associated with working lives can illuminate the playwright's works. Other essays look at ways of interacting with Shakespeare in the digital age, from Shakespearean resonances in Star Trek and Indian films to live broadcasts of theatre performances, social media, and online instructional tools. Together, the essays in this volume speak to how Shakespeare continues to enrich contemporary culture. A timely guide to the ongoing importance of Shakespearean drama, Shakespeare On Stage and Off surveys recent developments in performance, adaptation, popular culture, and education. Contributors include Russell J. Bodi (Owens State Community College), Christie Carson (Royal Holloway University of London), Brandon Christopher (University of Winnipeg), Antoni Cimolino (Stratford Festival), Jacob Claflin (College of Eastern Idaho), Lauren Eriks Cline (University of Michigan), David B. Goldstein (York University), Gina Hausknecht (Coe College), Peter Holland (University of Notre Dame), R.W. Jones (University of Texas), Christina Luckyj (Dalhousie University), Julia Reinhard Lupton (University of California, Irvine), Linda McJannet (Bentley University), Roderick H. McKeown (University of Toronto), Hayley O'Malley (University of Michigan), Amrita Sen (University of Calcutta), Eric Spencer (The College of Idaho), Lisa S. Starks (University of South Florida St Petersburg), and Jeffrey R. Wilson (Harvard University).