With the likelihood of Shakespeare moving back to the forefront of the curriculum, Twenty Ways into Shakespeare offers you an opportunity to experience a range of interactive ways to engage students in his characters, stories and language.
Twenty Ways into Shakespeare will take place at LACE Conference Centre, Croxteth Drive Liverpool, Merseyside, L17 1AA on Thursday 11th October 2012, 9.30am – 3.00pm.
Open to all teachers and teaching and creative practitioners.
Download the Twenty Ways into Shakespeare leaflet here
What will you get out of the day? Twenty easy-to-use ways into Shakespeare that you can take back into the classroom the very next day!
Although we’ll apply the learning to five of the plays (Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing and The Tempest), you won’t need to know any of them in advance – and we’ll introduce you to ways of adapting the techniques both across Shakespeare’s entire canon and to other curriculum subjects. We’ll investigate the basics of backstory, the centrality of character and the lyrics of language, as well as looking for Shakespeare’s hidden stage directions and applying some of the rules of verse. What will you get out of it? Twenty easy-to-use ways into Shakespeare that you can take back into the classroom the very next day!
“The activities you brought were new, exciting and relevant to learning – delivered with an engaging delivery style and excellent classroom management skills”
Member of SLT
“This group of students normally struggles to focus for more than thirty minutes at a time – but as creatives’ approach to Romeo and Juliet kept them engaged and on task for a full day!” (Director of Learning).
We also have a range of Shakespeare Workshops for Students
Content:
Shakespeare’s themes of love and death, of valour and treachery, of friendship and enmity are every much as relevant today as they were four hundred years ago – and he actually coined many of the words and phrases we now take for granted. Focusing on five of the plays, we’ll take you through a range of ways to demystify Shakespeare, to understand his characters and their deeds and to bring his words leaping from the page.
Over the course of the day, we’ll guide you through a structure that will let you explore key scenes with students and/or help them explore a play from start to finish:
Warming-Up: We’ll start the day by playing some classic theatre games, all of which can easily be transferred to the classroom.
Creating the Characters: Who are the key players? What do we know about them from the start – and how can we represent this visually? Working with The Tempest, we’ll explore how Shakespeare first presents his characters to the audience.
Setting the Scene: What happened before Act I Scene I – and how can this help our understanding? Working with The Tempest once again, we’ll guide you through a whole-group activity that places the backstory at the forefront of the action.
Loving the Language: Shakespeare’s language can be intimidating – so we’ll share with you some ways to take the sting out of the soliloquies and defuse the dialogue! Exploring Romeo and Juliet, we’ll play with the text, starting with individual words, but building to entire blocks.
Unwritten Scenes: Why does Shakespeare sometimes choose to tell us about key pieces of action rather than show us? We’ll answer this by looking at Macbeth – and explore ways of supporting students’ own scriptwriting skills.
Pivotal Parts: How can we help students to discover for themselves the power of those moments when a Shakespeare play changes its course (normally in Act III!)? We’ll take an experiential trip through A Midsummer Night’s Dream – just at the point where it threatens to become a nightmare!
The End is Nigh: Towards the end of each play, and depending on its nature, Shakespeare needs to either untangle the knots or draw the different threads together. Looking at Much Ado About Nothing, we’ll find out how he does this – and continues to toy with his audience to the very last page!
Details:
Twenty Ways into Shakespeare will take place at LACE Conference Centre, Liverpool on Thursday 11th October 2012, 9.30am – 3.00pm.
The cost of Twenty Ways into Shakespeare is £180 (plus VAT – which can normally be reclaimed by schools).
The cost includes:
- Expert tuition from experienced theatre professionals.
- A toolkit to accompany the content of the day and support you in exploring Shakespeare with your students.
- Refreshments throughout the day, including coffee and lunch.
Facilitators:
Twenty Ways into Shakespeare will be presented by Jackson Kavanagh and Jo Stokes. Jackson has directed a number of Shakespeare plays in a variety of spaces and, as a former Associate Lecturer with the University of Liverpool, has presented day schools on the histories, tragedies and comedies. Working with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Jo has performed in Richard III, The Tempest and The Merchant of Venice – in theatres from Stratford to Tokyo! More recently, and with as creatives, Jackson and Jo have supported teachers and pupils in both primary and secondary schools in bringing Shakespeare to life – and in learning to love the language!
Booking details:
To book a place on Twenty Ways into Shakespeare or for more information about this programme or any of the others developed by as creatives, please email Jenny Liggins, at j.liggins@as-creatives.com or call our office on 0151 708 8886.
Download the Twenty Ways into Shakespeare leaflet here
Programmes for Primary and Secondary School Students:
We are also deliver a wide range of Shakespeare themed workshops for primary and secondary school students including our popular ‘Play in a Day’ programme. To receive more information about these programmes please get in touch with us on 0151 708 8886 or email j.liggins@as-creatives.com
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