Teaching Shakespeare Through Performance

Book excerpt: Performance pedagogy does more than involve students in the acting, directing, and production work needed to bring a play text to life. It engages them in interpretation; it makes issues of structure or subtext immediate; it deepens understanding of stage history; in film, it demonstrates the role of camera, lighting, sound. Teaching Shakespeare through Performance is designed for teachers of both high school and college English courses who wish to introduce performance strategies into their classroom. The volume illustrates how attention to theatrical detail can give insight into Shakespeare's work and world: the significance of an omitted exit or entrance, the role of stage directions in King Lear, costumes and transvestism on the Renaissance stage, the changing fashions of acting Juliet, how experimenting with the use of different personal props in a scene from Hamlet reveals cultural attitudes, and much more.