NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS SHAKESPEARE IN AMERICAN COMMUNITIES Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries http://archive.org/details/teachersguideOOnati TEACHER'S GUIDE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS PRESENTS SHAKESPEARE IN AMERICAN COMMUNITIES SHAKESPEAR1 Shakespeare in American Communities is a national theater touring initiative made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts in cooperation with Arts Midwest. Performances will reach more than 1,500 communities across all 50 states, bringing professional theater productions of Shakespeare and related educational activities to Americans throughout the country. Through the added component of Shakespeare for a New Generation, a special emphasis is placed on reaching students with limited access to the arts. «* NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS The National Endowment for the Arts exists to foster, preserve, and promote excellence in the arts, to bring art to all Americans, and to provide leadership in arts education. Serving a nation in which artistic excellence is celebrated, supported, and available to all, the Arts Endowment is the largest annual funder of the arts in the United States. A^ I ■■ Arts Midwest, a nonprofit regional arts organization headquartered in f \/T£^ Minneapolis, connects the arts to audiences throughout Illinois. Indiana midwest i owa Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. I nless otherwise indicated, all images arc from the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC. home to the world's largest Shakespeare collection. To learn more, visit vvwvv.lolger.edu. FOLGER CONTENTS Introduction: To the Teacher 1 The Elizabethan Age 2 Elizabethan Society and Class Structure, 2 Religion in the Elizabethan Age, 3 Education in the Elizabethan Age, 4 Elizabethan Theater 6 The Life of William Shakespeare (1564-1616) 9 Shakespeare's Plays 11 Iambic Pentameter, 1 1 Shakespeare in America 13 Bon owing from the Bard, 15 Resources 16 Lesson Plans 17 Modernizing Monologues, 1 7 Stealing Lore Letters, 18 The Scene outside the Globe, 19 NCTE English Language Arts Standards 28 INTRODUCTION: TO THE TEACHER The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to provide you with these special classroom materials for Shakespeare in American Communities. We believe that these print, audio, and video resources will greatly enrich the education of your students. Whether listening to James Earl Jones bring Shakespeare's poetry to life on our CD or using our lesson plans to rewrite one of the Bards famous monologues in their own words, your students will find ample opportunities to expand their knowledge, creativity, and command of language. Shakespeare in American Communities is the largest tour of Shakespeare in our nations history Since September 2003, the initiative has engaged 60 theater companies to bring new Shakespeare productions and special in-school programs to more than 1 ,500 communities as well as military bases across all 50 states. The National Endowment for the Arts created this program in conjunction with Arts Midwest to revive Americas rich history of theatrical touring and bring great theater to a new generation of American students. Shakespeare in American Communities is the most ambitious project in the history of the National Endowment for the Arts. But this project cannot succeed without your support and involvement. What happens in your classroom is just as important as what happens on the stage. One great teacher can change a students life. At the Arts Endowment, our great hope is to help dedicated teachers like you accomplish this magic. Sincerely, Dana Gioia £^U^ Mgte\6L Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts II VCHERS 1 THE ELIZABETHAN AGE Shakespeare lived during a remarkable period of English history, a time of relative political stability that followed and preceded eras of extensive upheaval. Elizabeth I became the Queen of England in 1558, six years before Shakespeare's birth. During her 45-year reign, London became a cultural and commercial center, learning and literature thrived, and England developed into one of the major powers in Europe. When Queen Elizabeth ascended to the throne, there were violent clashes throughout Europe between Protestant and Catholic leaders and their followers. Though Elizabeth honored many of the Protestant edicts of her late father, King Henry VIII, she made significant concessions to Catholic sympathizers, which kept them from attempting rebellion. But when compromise was not possible, she was an exacting and determined leader who did not shy away from conflict. With the naval defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, England was firmly established as a leading military and commercial power in the Western world. Elizabeth supported and later knighted Sir Francis Drake, the first sailor to circumnavigate the globe. She also funded Sir Walter Raleigh's exploration of the New World, which brought new wealth to her country in the form of tobacco and gold from Latin America. Queen Elizabeth also recognized the importance of the arts to the life and legacy of her nation. She was fond of the theater, and many of England's greatest playwrights were active during her reign, including Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, and William Shakespeare. With her permission, Elizabethan Society and Class Structure Elizabethan society was based on a system of precedence (one's ranking in society) and one's preferment status (the king or queen's view of one's standing). While the nobility remained powerful, the real growth in society developed within the merchant class, and upward class mobility became possible for many people. In Elizabethan England, there were "new" nobles and "old" nobles. Most of the new nobles were Protestant. Most of the old nobles were Roman Catholic. It may be tempting to view the nobility as the idle rich, but this was certainly not the case. The high offices granted by the Queen brought great financial burdens. The honorific titles were unpaid, and when foreign dignitaries visited England, they were housed and entertained at the expense of the nobility. The highest and most expensive "honor" was that of housing the Queen and her household as she went on public tours and visits throughout the country. Many families simply could not afford this "honor" and, at the risk of their preferment status, had to turn it down. 2 SHAKLSI'HARE IN AMERICAN COMMUNITIES TEACHER'S GUIDE 3 professional theaters were built in England for the first time, attracting 15,000 theater- goers per week in London, a city of 150,000 to 250,000. In addition to Shakespeare's masterpieces of the stage, Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queen, and Sir Philip Sidney's Defence ofPoesie were all written during this golden age in the literary arts. The Shakespearean sonnet, Spenserian stanza, and dramatic blank verse also came into practice during the period. Upon the death of Elizabeth, King James I rose to power in England. A writer himself, he displayed a great love of learning, particularly theater. At the king's invitation, Shakespeare's theater company, Lord Chamberlain's Men, became known as the King's Men, and they produced new works under his patronage. King James also commissioned the translation of the Bible from Latin into English so that it might be more readily available to those who had not King James I and the King James Bible, right. studied the language of the educated class. Completed in 1611 by a team of scholars and monks, the King James Version of the Bible has become the best- selling and arguably the most-influential book in the world. Religion in the Elizabethan Age Religion was central to the society for which Shakespeare wrote. Queen Elizabeth made attendance at Church of England services mandatory, even though many church-goers had to travel long distances. People who did not attend — for any reason except illness — were punished with fines. (Shakespeare's father and sister were reported as absent, though his father's debts probably were the cause of his inability to attend church.) While it was not a crime to be Catholic in Elizabethan England, there was no legal way for Catholics to practice their faith. It was illegal to hold or to attend a mass. Powerful people, however, were less likely to be punished than others. Many of the upper classes were exempt from the new oaths of allegiance to the Church of England, and often wealthy Catholic families secretly maintained private chaplains. Elizabethan policy allowed freedom of belief as long as English subjects did not openly flout the law or encourage sedition. 4 SHAKISPEARJ i \ AMI RICAN COMMUNITIES Unfortunately, King James surrounded himself with untrustworthy advisors, and his extravagant lifestyle strained the royal finances and the patience of the Puritan- controlled Parliament. When James died in 1628, his son Charles I ascended to the throne, and tensions between Parliament and the Crown increased. King Charles I eventually lost a bloody civil war to the Puritans, who executed the King (his son Charles II fled to France). For a dozen years, the Puritans enacted many reforms which included closing the theaters. The Commonwealth lasted until Charles II returned from France, claimed the throne, and installed the Restoration. King Charles II also reopened the theaters, but England's theatrical highpoint had passed. Education in the Elizabethan Age Boys were educated to be useful members of society. Teaching techniques relied heavily on memorization and recitation. The language of literacy throughout Europe was Latin, and students were expected to be proficient in it. Boys started grammar school at the age of six or seven. Their typical school day ran from 6:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Classroom discipline was strict, and often involved corporeal punishment. In the lower grades, boys studied Latin grammar and vocabulary. In the upper grades, they read the poetry and prose of writers such as Ovid, Martial, and Catullus. Most boys began an apprenticeship in a trade following grammar school. Sons of the nobility attended the university or the Inns of Court. Formal schooling was not encouraged for girls unless they were the children of nobility. For those who were educated, schooling focused primarily on chastity and the skills of housewifery. Young girls from wealthy families were often placed in the households of acquaintances where they would learn to read, write, keep accounts, manage a household and estate, and make salves. They were also trained in leisure skills such as singing and dancing. While no one would argue that Elizabethan England presented the greatest of opportunities for universal education, literacy significantly increased throughout the sixteenth century. By 1 600. at least one-third of the male population could read, and Puritans pushed for significantly increased funding of grammar schools. TEACHER'S 5 ELIZABETHAN THEATER Even in an era when popular entertainment included public executions and cock-fighting, theater became central to Elizabethan social life. As drama shifted from a religious to a secular function in society, playwrights and poets were among the leading artists of the day. Toward the end of the sixteenth century, the popularity of plays written by scholars such as Christopher Marlowe, Robert Greene, John Lyly and Thomas Lodge led to the building of theaters and to the development of companies of actors, both professional and amateur. These companies of players traveled throughout England, generally performing in London in the winter and spring, and navigating notoriously neglected roads throughout the English countryside during the summers when plague ravaged the city. Professional companies were also retained for the private entertainment of English aristocracy. In spite of its popularity, the Elizabethan theater attracted criticism, censorship, and scorn from some sectors of English society. The plays were often coarse and boisterous, and playwrights and actors belonged to a bohemian class. Puritan leaders and officers of the Church of England considered actors to be of questionable character, and they criticized playwrights for using the stage to disseminate their irreverent opinions. They also feared the overcrowded theater spaces might lead to the spread of disease. At times throughout the sixteenth century, Parliament censored plays for profanity, heresy, or politics. But Queen Elizabeth and later King James offered protections that ultimately allowed the theater to survive. To appease Puritan concerns, the Queen established rules prohibiting the construction of theaters and theatrical performances within the London city limits. The rules were loosely enforced, however, and playhouses such as the Curtain, the Globe, the Rose, and the Swan were constructed just outside of London, within easy reach of the theater-going public. These public playhouses paved the way for the eventual emergence of professional companies as stable business organizations. Among the actors who performed in the Elizabethan theater, Richard Burbage is perhaps the best known. Burbage was the leading actor in Shakespeare's company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, and he is credited with portraying a range of dramatic leads including Richard III, Hamlet, Lear, and Othello. An actor himself, Shakespeare played roles in his own plays, usually as older male characters. Acting was not considered an appropriate profession for women in the Elizabethan era, and even into the seventeenth century acting companies consisted of men with young boys playing the female roles. Instead of clothing reflecting the station of their characters, Elizabethan actors wore lavish 6 SHAKESPEARE IN AMI RJCAN COMMUNITIES The Globe Theatre, London. Detail from a map of London, 1616. TEACHERS GUIDE 7 costumes consistent with upperclass dress. In contrast, stage scenery was minimal, perhaps consisting solely of painted panels placed upstage. Elizabethan theaters were makeshift, dirty, and loud, but nevertheless they attracted audiences as large as 3,000 from all social classes. Performances were usually given in the afternoons, lasting two to three hours. As in both ancient and contemporary theaters, each section of the theater bore a different price of admission, with the lowest prices in the pit below stage level where patrons stood to watch the play. Most performance spaces were arranged u in-the-round," giving spectators the opportunity to watch both the play and the behavior of other spectators. Etiquette did not prohibit the audiences from freely A CATALOG VE of ihcfeucrall Comedies, Hiftories, and 1 ■ COMEDIES. TleComr ■ Louts Lab. IMC. 145 The Men ! 165 As you Like it. so8 230 j 04 expressing their distaste or satisfaction for the action on stage. The rich theatrical flowering begun by Shakespeare and his contemporaries continued into the seventeenth century, well beyond the reign of Queen Elizabeth. In 1642, however, with the country on the verge of a civil war, the Puritan Parliament closed the theaters and forbade stage plays in an edict that argued that theater distracted the fragmented nation from its efforts to "appease and avert the wrath of God." When King Charles II took the English throne in 1660, the theaters were reopened, and the arts were again celebrated. His reign became known as the Restoration, but the greatest period of England theater had already run its course. o<5 1 1 jo M 7 J.i 7^ 205 1 RAi HIST0RI1 fir Ujt C TitM AnA< 3 i CI 80 ^uUatQtftr. 109 1 j 1 1 52 285 1 10 346 The Tabic of Contents from the First Folio, J 62.3. 8 s| 1AKI SPEARE IN AMERICAN COMMUNITIES THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616) Within the class system of Elizabethan England, William Shakespeare did not seem destined for greatness. He was not born into a family of nobility or significant wealth. He did not continue his formal education at university, nor did he come under the mentorship of a senior artist, nor did he marry into wealth or prestige. His talent as an actor seems to have been modest, since he is not known for starring roles. His success as a playwright depended in part upon royal patronage. Yet in spite of these limitations, Shakespeare is now the most performed and read playwright in the world. Born to John Shakespeare, a glove- maker and tradesman, and Maty Arden, the daughter of an affluent farmer, William Shakespeare was baptized on April 26, 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon. At that time, infants were baptized three days after their birth, thus scholars believe that Shakespeare was born on April 23, the same day on which he died at age 52. One of eight children, young William grew up in this small town one hundred miles northwest of London, far from the cultural and courtly center of England. Shakespeare attended the local grammar school, Kings New School, where the curriculum would have stressed a classical education of Greek mythology, An 183-1 exterior view oj Shakespeare's birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon. Roman comedy, ancient history, rhetoric, grammar, Latin, and possibly Greek. Unlike his fellow playwright Christopher Marlowe, he did not attend university Rather, in 1582 at age 18, he married Anne Hathaway, a woman eight years his senior and three months pregnant. Their first child. Susanna, was born in 1583, and twins. Hamnet and Judith, came in 1585. In the seven years following their birth, the historical record concerning Shakespeare is incomplete, contradictor), and unreliable: scholars refer to this period as his ./ "lost years." In a 1592 pamphlet by Robert Greene. Shakespeare reappears as an "upstart crow" Happing his poetic wings TEACHER'5 9 in London. Evidently, it did not take him long to land on the stage. Between 1590 and 1592, Shakespeare's Henry VI series, Richard III, and The Comedy oj Errors were performed. When the theaters were closed in 1593 because of the plague, the playwright wrote two narrative poems, Venus and Adonis and The Rape ofLucrece, and probably began writing his richly textured sonnets. One hundred and fifty- four of his sonnets have survived, ensuring his reputation as a gifted poet. Having established himself as an actor and playwright, in 1594 Shakespeare became a shareholder in the Lord Chamberlains Men, one of the most popular acting companies in London. He remained a member of this company for the rest of his career, often playing before the court of Queen Elizabeth. With his newfound success, Shakespeare purchased the second largest home in Stratford in 1597, though he continued to live in London. Two years later, he joined others from the Lord Chamberlain's Men in establishing the polygonal Globe Theatre on the outskirts of London. When King James came to the throne in 1603, he issued a royal license to Shakespeare and his fellow players, organizing them as the King's Men. During King James's M..WI LLIAM SHAKESPEARES ( OMEDIES, HISTORIES, & T RAG I'D I Pobli L .\ T> *£ ■- Printtdby IiiicLggarJ, and Ei. Blount. i