Welcome, readers, to another week in Shakespeare education news!
MBA The Shakespeare Way
Warwick Business School has integrated Shakespeare into their curriculum as a way to focus on problem solving in the business world. The course work includes a two-week workshop and pitch to the Royal Shakespeare Company. The program allows participants the opportunity to work on creativity, management, networking, collaboration, general physical confidence.
Storms A-Brewin’
Inspired by Hurricane Sandy, students at the National Theatre Institute have focused on Shakespeare’s “shipwreck plays.” The group used both The Tempest and The Comedy of Errors as their creative base for telling a storm story piece as their final semester project. NTI’s student project, entitled “They Were Under,” ran for free at the Eugene O’Neill Theater in Waterford, Connecticut. From the Theater Center website:
An original work, They Were Under will feature first-hand and journalistic accounts, weather forecasts, and documentaries from Hurricane Sandy and the Hurricane of 1938. Including original, student-composed music, the performance is set against Shakespeare’s two well known “Shipwreck Plays,” The Tempest and Comedy of Errors; weaving together themes of loss, tragedy, and community unity experienced throughout the East during the two storms.
Shakespeare in Taiwan
Linda Alper (from her website)
Actress Linda Alper of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival spent the last year participating in the Fulbright Scholars Program as a college lecturer in Taiwan. She taught Shakespeare for the international exchange program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. In working with a second language, Shakespeare proved to be a challenge for the students, but Alper used physical and visual excercises as well as a focus on acting values to get the material across.
Alas, Poor Shakespeare …
The debate continues surrounding the forthcoming Common Core Standards and their emphasis on non-fiction texts over classic literature. In Milwaukee’s Journal Sentinal, Alan J. Borsuk outlines how Shakespeare’s works have become a large part of the controversy surrounding the approaching standards and how teachers intend to deal with the new nonfiction materials. Joanna Weiss at The Boston Globe, however, says the stories of a Shakespeare-less classroom are mostly hype.
Other Bits of Interest
- Estancia High School’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream recently won a Mainstage award from the California Educational Theatre Association and the cast will perform in a three-day festival
- The Hartford Courant features McDonough Expeditionary Learning School’s participation in Shakespeare on the Sound’s “Speaking Daggers” anti-bullying program
- Schools like the British School of Paris continue to the new trend of adopting tablet technologies into their Shakespeare curriculum
- Woodlands High School recently performed Othello with a “racially inverted” cast
The Shakespeare Standard welcomes your feedback. Please let us know your thoughts about any of the stories you’ve read here today and start the conversation!
