Recently I attended the Pigeon Creek Shakespeare performance. It was held during my Shakespeare class so that made it easy. The scene that were performed were from Macbeth. At the start of the class the director spoke to us about some of the ideas behind what they do that other performances of Shakespeare don’t.

 

One thing that made all the difference in the performance was that they stay true to the way that the stage was set up. This means that they use a thrust stage since this is what would have been used during Shakespeare’s time. One of the benefits to using a thrust stage is that there is a lot more character audience interaction. The audience is forced into a relationship with the actors and feel somewhat of a connection with what happens in the play.

 

But, perhaps the best part to the performance was when we were told that the setting for the play was going to be in a post apocalyptic punk era. So, the characters would be decked out in leather and fishnets. The director told us that the reasoning behind this was so that audience would make better connections with what was going on in the play. Not being dressed in Elizabethan clothing makes it easier for the audience to understand what is going on.

 

From this I drew a very important conclusion for teaching Shakespeare. If at all possible, being able to update the text to something that students can relate to will make the experience overall more enjoyable and understandable. From a writing stand point, I think it would be great if while teaching a play of Shakespeare’s you had students rewrite scenes. But, rather than write scenes just to make them understandable, write them in the fashion of some popular movie theme.

 

In a paper I just wrote for my Shakespeare class I use this example from Much Ado about Nothing:

 

By having students update the text they are then able to make connections they never saw before. For instance, students could take the scene in which Ursala and Hero are talking about how Benedick is in love with Beatrice so that Beatrice will here them. This is a classic case off girls gossiping, which teenager girls can relate closely to. Students could then take this scene and adapt it to fit a teen comedy, like say Mean Girls. By changing the language the rest of the class is then able what the characters in the play are trying to do. For example, the lines:

Hero. No, truly, Ursula, she is too disdainful. I know her spirits are coy and wild as       haggards of the rock.

Ursula. That Benedick loves Beatrice so entirely?

Hero. So says the Prince and my new-trothed lord (3.1.35-40)

could easily be turned into:

            Heather. For real, Sarah, she is so cynical. I mean she’s crazy.

            Sarah. But Ben still has a huge crush on Trish?

            Heather. I guess so. I mean Dan, the most popular senior, and my boyfriend said so, it   must be true.