Don't teach Shakespeare like this
Sometimes learning experiences are just not meant for the classroom
A place to explore: Wherever the Drunk Shakespeare Society is holding court.
Imagine a mashup of Drunk History1, stand-up-comedy, a crazy night out with your friends, partial nudity, shots of whiskey, improv, and (oh yeah), Shakespeare.
You’ve got yourself a Drunk Shakespeare performance.
I was in Phoenix with my three best friends last weekend and we took in a performance. Four actors performed Macbeth in the round to a small audience, but one of them (Banquo - see below) had five shots of whiskey during the performance. The drunken dude spent the play trying to remember his lines, injecting new rules into the performance (“every time you come on stage you have to act like a cartoon character” and “okay, but say your whole monologue in just two breaths”), and generally fomenting chaos. The other actors remained sober and (kinda) tried to keep things on track. There were puppets, a saxophone, obscene illustrations, tons of audience interaction, numerous media/current event references, and ping-pong balls.
An excellent time was had by all.
First a confession: I’m not really a Shakespeare person.2 The only thing I knew about Macbeth was Scotland, something about witches, and that one reference in Lin Manuel’s Hamilton.
It didn’t matter at all. No Shakespeare knowledge was necessary to have an amazing time.
Things began as we were ushered into a library and handed a shot. Then, bidding began on the Royal Throne seats.
Whomever wins the bid and claims the throne gets to sit there for the rest of the night, wearing a crown, drinking champagne, dining on caviar. The Royal Throne occupant also gets decision making capabilities (the decision: should the drunken actor have to take another shot?), and becomes part of the action. My friend won the bidding3.
There she is, dying:
Then we were off to murder more people in Scotland!
By the end of the show, Banquo had partially disrobed (note Birnam Woods, hanging from his wrist there). He ended the show with the monologue from Independence day, as one does.
And there ya have it - Macbeth.
Also, shoutout to my friend’s husband for buying us all tickets :)
Drunk Shakespeare is currently in NYC, DC, Chicago, Phoenix, and Houston.
A book to read: Shakespeare for Squirrels
For more irreverent takes on Shakespeare, head straight for the Bard of the 21st century: Christopher Moore. While not my favorite Christopher Moore book (I wrote about that one here), SHAKESPEARE FOR SQUIRRELS is in my top three.
A parody of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, SHAKESPEARE FOR SQUIRRELS brings back Pocket, King Lear’s fool from my 2nd favorite Christopher Moore book.
Pocket, post-pirate attack, lands in Shakespeare’s Athens and find himself needing to solve a murder mystery. He’s got three days. Distracting him are cavorting fairies, wanna-be mechanicals who are in desperate need of his acting lessons, his monkey Jeff, and all the other murder and mayhem crashing about him. Good times.
Like Drunk Shakespeare, this work will only be enjoyed by people who identify with the words “irreverent,” “fuckstockings,” and “pandemonium.”
Mom: you will not like this book
Trista: you should read it immediately
Auntie Pat: the jury is out
Like all Moore’s work, I highly recommend the audio version. Try downloading it with Libro.fm (thus supporting your local bookstore) or the listening app provided by your local library.
A lesson to teach: None of the above
Not to be all Moms for Liberty4 about this, but drunkenly teaching or performing Shakespeare for your students should be banned. Do not do this. You should not take students to a Drunk Shakespeare performance. You should not teach Shakespeare for Squirrels.
Luckily, one of my four aforementioned best friends on this Drunken Shakespeare adventure is an English teacher (who teaches Macbeth! After the show she told us how all the jokes were even more funny then we’d originally thought), and she sent me a classroom idea to share:
Rachel thinks this is an adapted Folger strategy and she’d also point teachers to the Royal Shakespeare Company’s learning zone for more strategies.
Here we go:
Round Robin reading is usually not a great practice, but this is a low stakes way to get all students using Shakespeare's language.
Goals:
Students understand a line may not be a complete idea.
Students identify complete ideas/sentences in a text.
Students summarize a key scene or speech in the text.
Steps:
1. Choose a key speech or short scene in the play. For Romeo & Juliet the prologue is perfect. For Macbeth, the witches prophecy and Macbeth's reaction in Act 1, Scene 3 is a great choice. Students should have a printed copy of the selected scene to mark.
2. Students circle up. Preview the text. Depending on the group, you can read or play the scene so they hear and read the words first.
3. ONE WORD: Student A reads the first word, B the next, all the way around the circle to the end of the selection. Ask about key words. Allow students to ask about words or look them up and mark the text.
4. ONE LINE: Students read around again, this time line by line. Ask about any key ideas they see. Ask students if each line was a complete thought? (Elicit at least one example that is not.)
5. ONE SENTENCE: Students read around, but this time they stop at an end punctuation (.!?) ***If there is a particularly long sentence that will end up with a struggling student, I often insert myself in the circle to read that part.***
6. Ask them how many complete ideas (sentences) are in the scene. Paraphrase each one annotating the text.
Whelp, that’s it for this week. Happy teaching, traveling, reading, and (maybe?) drinking! See y’all next Sunday.
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I always wish I could show this Drunk History episode about Yaa Asantewaa to my students.
I know, I know. How can I call myself a writer? Feel free to throw turnips.
There is an option to purchase the Royal Experience beforehand, so I’m guessing the bidding just happens if nobody pre-buys the seats.
Blech.