Brush up your Shakespeare!

Clayton S.

I have been teaching students of all ages to "play Shakespeare" for 35 years. Since 2003 I have worked full-time as an educational outreach director and teacher for a university-based Shakespeare-through-performance program; my primary focus is students in grades 3-5 (and they're some of the best performers of Shakespeare I've ever seen!), but I've also taught middle schoolers, visited some high school classes, and worked with university students in the US and in China and adult "continuing education" learners. I didn't understand or enjoy Shakespeare in high school and even through most of my undergraduate years. Then I was fortunate enough to take an English class where we performed the plays as part of an ensemble. Suddenly the richness of the language and the fun of the story began to open up for me.

Though my focus is on the performance-based approach, I've also spent hours just helping students unpack a challenging speech or scene to help it come to life for the student.

I have 35 years of experience teaching Shakespeare through performance. During six of those years, I was a classroom teacher (4 years in public elementary schools, 2 in mixed-age private schools -- I worked the Shakespeare into language arts time!). I've performed in half of Shakespeare's plays and traveled the country and the UK to see and study Shakespeare productions.

If you want to try your hand at performing a speech or part of a scene, it's a great way to learn about the language and Shakespeare's theatrical instincts; but even if you don't, I bet I can help you better understand whatever play you're reading.