On 5/13/08, Julie Piascik wrote:
> Does anyone have any good hands-on activities to engage
> learners in Shakespeare's Hamlet?
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Read Act I, sc.1. aloud in class.
Ask a student (not the whole class):
1)Francisco is the soldier at his post; why does Shakespeare
have Bernardo, the man who is to relieve him, ask "Who's
there?"
2) "Long live the king" ? That doesn't answer Francisco's
demand, "Stand and unfold yourself," does it? Ask a student
to explain what's going on here.
Continue, line-by-line, until the appearance of the ghost.
3) Granting how the class has answered the above
questions,ask a student to direct the first few lines; what
is Francisco's/Bernardo's attitudes? Ask: "How would you
direct the actors to realize these lines on stage? What
words would be emphasized? What actions would you have them
perform?" (Continue this "direction" throughout the first
lines of the scene.)
4) Play the video tape of the play up to the point of the
ghost's appearance. Ask a student to compare the video
presentation of Francisco with what the director-student
prescribed. Which is better and why? (The context for these
questions and answers is ONLY the first scene and what it
establishes)
5)Continue with comparable questions about the remaining
lines of this section of the scene; then repeat the
procedure for the rest of the scene.
This is a very slow but really engaging method for
dealing with any play. The discussion moves more quickly as
the study of the play continues. Do NOT be confined by a
cover-the-material requirement; if anything is "left over"
when the time for the treatment of the play expires,
summarize or assign it as homework.
Finally, nothing will work right if the teacher does
not know the play well, if he does not have a
comprehensive "reading" of it, if he does not know the
importance of the scenes or themes of it, if he does not
delight in dealing with those, and if he is not sure why his
students should be impressed with what he presents to them.
L. Swilley
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