Group items tagged

"This is the play-date generation. ... There was a time when children came home from school and just played randomly with their friends. Or hung around and got bored, and eventually that would lead you on to something. Kids don't get to do that now. Busy parents book them into things constantly-violin lessons, ballet lessons, swimming teams. The kids get the idea that someone will always be structuring their time for them."

A great article, worth 15 minutes.

Mneomic device for remembering the common elements in Shakepeare's plays

BBC's 60 Second Shakespeare: Shakespeare newspapers with quick summaries of the plot and characters of fourteen major Shakespeare plays.

Exploring Shakespeare's words in plays, poems, and glossary

"Lit2Go is a free online collection of stories and poems in Mp3 (audiobook) format. An abstract, citation, playing time, and word count are given for each of the passages. Many of the passages also have a related reading strategy identified. Each reading passage can also be downloaded as a PDF and printed for use as a read-along or as supplemental reading material for your classroom. "

Chicago Shakespeare Theater has printable handbooks for many of Shakespeare's plays. "Each of our entirely original teacher handbooks includes active, engaging teaching activities, 400 years of critical thinking, synopses, and much more. Teaching activities-all aligned with the Common Core State Standards-are designed to draw upon some of the same practices and techniques that actors use in the rehearsal process to break open Shakespeare's challenging language."

The Birthday Party by Katherine Brush     They were a couple in their late thirties, and they looked unmistakably married. They sat on the banquette opposite us in a little narrow restaurant, having dinner. The man had a round, self-satisfied face, with glasses on it; the woman was fadingly pretty, in a big hat. There was nothing conspicuous about them, nothing particularly noticeable, until the end of their meal, when it suddenly became obvious that this was an occasion-in fact, the husband's birthday. And the wife had planned a little surprise for him.     It arrived, in the form of a small but glossy birthday cake, with one pink candle burning in the center. The headwaiter brought it in and placed it before the husband, and meanwhile the violin-and-piano orchestra played "Happy Birthday to You" and the wife beamed with shy pride over her little surprise, and such few people as there were in the restaurant tried to help out with a pattering of applause. It became clear at once that help was needed, because the husband was not pleased. Instead he was hotly embarrassed, and indignant at his wife for embarrassing him.     You looked at him and you saw this and you thought, "Oh, now don't be like that!" But he was like that, and as soon as the little cake had been deposited on the table, and the orchestra had finished the birthday piece, and the general attention had shifted from the man and the woman, I saw him say something to her under his breath-some punishing thing, quick and curt and unkind. I couldn't bear to look at the woman then, so I stared at my plate and waited for quite a long time. Not long enough, though. She was still crying when I finally glanced over there again. Crying quietly and heartbrokenly and hopelessly, all to herself, under the gay big brim of her best hat.  

This 20 minutes, 6 page play is $1 to purchase and get the rights to perform. "How Jackie Changed the World" about Jackie Robinson. Would be great for Martin Luther King Day or black history month. Ages 7-14 with enough parts for 8-13 actors.

The History of England is an early work of Jane Austen. She completed the composition in November 1791 when she was just 15 years old. Jane Austen's History is a lively parody which makes fun of the standard schoolroom books of the time. Declaring herself to be a 'partial, prejudiced and ignorant Historian' she cites works of fiction, such as Shakespeare's plays, as historial authority and includes references to her own family and friends. Jane's older sister Cassandra illustrated the text with imaginative portraits of the English monarchs

Excellent use for online portfolios. Thanks whoever I got this from because I've forgotten...

That's mine :) Students will make a copy, personalize, and fill it up during the year.

great list: what they missed is included in the comments. Only ten plays, but still, a good start on a complete list

"Scriptwriting is an artform, and creating art is never easy. Everytime you watch a TV show, watch a film or even play a computer game you are taking in the work of a scriptwriter. With today being driven by the various mediums of entertainment scriptwriting has becomes one of the best page and attractive jobs going. Film scripts have been sold for in excess of $1 million. With that sort of money floating around it's no wonder people are becoming more interested in the idea of scriptwriting. "

If this is the future of studying a Shakespeare play, sign me up.

Episode #1148 American Icons: The Great Gatsby « previous episode | next episode » Thursday, November 25, 2010 Recommend Share Print Email Play 00:00 / 00:00 ListenAddDownloadEmbed Stream m3u Episodes of false identity, living large, and murder in the suburbs add up to the great American novel.

The Internet Shakespeare Editions has high quality facsimilies of Shakespeare's Folios and Quartos available for viewing online. You may view the books in their entirety, page by page. The site includes facsimiles and transcriptions of Folio 1, Folio 2, Folio 3, and Folio 4, and many Quartos available online.

Fun video of Weird Al Yankovic changing street sign with improper grammar.

In spite of predictions, the Web is not dead, but evolving.