Teaching Shakespeare's Plays Through Scholarship and Performance

FAIN: ES-272537-20

Theatre for a New Audience, Inc. (New York, NY 10014-2840)
Kathleen Dorman (Project Director: March 2020 to October 2021)
Lindsay Tanner (Project Director: October 2021 to present)

A two-week institute for 25 middle and high school teachers on the text and performance of Shakespeare’s plays.

Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA) proposes a two-week Summer Institute entitled Teaching Shakespeare's Plays through Scholarship and Performance, to be held July 12-23, 2021 at TFANA's Polonsky Shakespeare Center in Brooklyn, New York. Offered to a national group of 25 middle and high school teachers, the Institute introduces a carefully integrated approach for exploring text-based scholarship, contextual and original source material, language, and performance in three Shakespeare plays. This year's participants will study MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, MEASURE FOR MEASURE and OTHELLO under the guidance of leading Shakespeare scholars Julie Crawford (Columbia University) and Mario DiGangi (Lehman College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York), and master teaching artists and theatre practitioners Krista Apple and Claudia Zelevansky.

Associated Products

Reading & Teaching a Shakespeare Play: Getting Started (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: Reading & Teaching a Shakespeare Play: Getting Started
Author: Julie Crawford
Author: Mario DiGangi
Author: Maria Fahey
Author: Krista Apple
Author: Claudia Zelevansky
Abstract: TFANA has made resource packets, which include curricular materials, based on the 2022 Institute’s key focuses and learnings. These packets are publicly available on TFANA’s website. All material is “classroom-ready,” meaning it was written for teachers to share directly with students (although they may modify it if they wish). Please see packets attached in the Supplemental Materials section. This packet includes resources that support reading and understanding a Shakespeare’s play for the first time. It includes definitions, as well as both text and theatre-based exercises for improved comprehension and understanding plot and characters/their motivations.
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://www.tfana.org/education/neh-summer-institute-school-teachers/resources
Primary URL Description: Link to TFANA's Resources Page
Audience: K - 12

Shakespeare’s Playhouse: Performance Then & Now (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: Shakespeare’s Playhouse: Performance Then & Now
Author: Julie Crawford
Author: Mario DiGangi
Author: Maria Fahey
Author: Krista Apple
Author: Claudia Zelevansky
Abstract: TFANA has made resource packets, which include curricular materials, based on the 2022 Institute’s key focuses and learnings. These packets are publicly available on TFANA’s website. All material is “classroom-ready,” meaning it was written for teachers to share directly with students (although they may modify it if they wish). Please see packets attached in the Supplemental Materials section. This packet includes resources to introduce students to understanding Shakespeare as a playwright whose works were written to be performed in a specific context – the theaters of early modern England. It also includes a list of excellent productions available to stream online for free (or under $10), so that students can see and hear the text performed.
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://www.tfana.org/education/neh-summer-institute-school-teachers/resources
Primary URL Description: Link to TFANA's Resources Page
Audience: K - 12

Resources for Exploring a Shakespeare Play: Early Texts & Secondary Sources (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: Resources for Exploring a Shakespeare Play: Early Texts & Secondary Sources
Author: Julie Crawford
Author: Mario DiGangi
Author: Maria Fahey
Author: Krista Apple
Author: Claudia Zelevansky
Abstract: TFANA has made resource packets, which include curricular materials, based on the 2022 Institute’s key focuses and learnings. These packets are publicly available on TFANA’s website. All material is “classroom-ready,” meaning it was written for teachers to share directly with students (although they may modify it if they wish). Please see packets attached in the Supplemental Materials section. This packet includes resources for introducing students to Shakespeare scholarship. It also includes guides to the earliest editions of the plays (and how they impact what we read today); how to use the OED to enhance close reading; and where to find perspectives from a diverse array of contemporary Shakespeare scholars.
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://www.tfana.org/education/neh-summer-institute-school-teachers/resources
Primary URL Description: Link to TFANA's Resources Page
Audience: K - 12

Shakespeare Performance Exercises for Theater and Classroom: Understanding through Staging (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: Shakespeare Performance Exercises for Theater and Classroom: Understanding through Staging
Author: Julie Crawford
Author: Mario DiGangi
Author: Maria Fahey
Author: Krista Apple
Author: Claudia Zelevansky
Abstract: TFANA has made resource packets, which include curricular materials, based on the 2022 Institute’s key focuses and learnings. These packets are publicly available on TFANA’s website. All material is “classroom-ready,” meaning it was written for teachers to share directly with students (although they may modify it if they wish). Please see packets attached in the Supplemental Materials section. This packet includes resources containing exercises and explanations aimed at teaching Shakespeare from a performance/theatre perspective. It also includes exercises for exploring plot/story structure, characters and their motivations, worldbuilding and setting, conflict and theme, as well as language
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://www.tfana.org/education/neh-summer-institute-school-teachers/resources
Primary URL Description: Link to TFANA's Resources Page
Audience: K - 12

Power Dynamics in Shakespeare Plays: Authority, Sex, & Resistance (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: Power Dynamics in Shakespeare Plays: Authority, Sex, & Resistance
Author: Julie Crawford
Author: Mario DiGangi
Author: Maria Fahey
Author: Krista Apple
Author: Claudia Zelevansky
Abstract: TFANA has made resource packets, which include curricular materials, based on the 2022 Institute’s key focuses and learnings. These packets are publicly available on TFANA’s website. All material is “classroom-ready,” meaning it was written for teachers to share directly with students (although they may modify it if they wish). Please see packets attached in the Supplemental Materials section. This packet includes resources to facilitate discussions about the influence of identity, especially gender identity, on status and power in Shakespeare’s England and plays. It also includes discussion questions and embodied exercises for examining status and power, as well as two lists of high quality resources to further discussions in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM and OTHELLO.
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://www.tfana.org/education/neh-summer-institute-school-teachers/resources
Primary URL Description: Link to TFANA's Resources Page
Audience: K - 12

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