What is your experience with Shakespeare in school?

Question

Was it a good one? A bad one? Any interesting classroom experiences or frusterations? Please be detailed! List any works by him that gave you trouble, characters... etc.... best answer will get 10 points! : )

Answer 1

I worked in the theatre department at NKU and had the help of Jack Wann in getting through Shakespeare. He made it fun. As a result when I took my Shakespeare classes (I had to take two for my degrees) I would sit in class and crochet and answer questions (correctly) when called on and I didn't take notes. My poor professor was unaware of where I worked so he didn't know the help I had received early on.

Answer 2

I remember reading "Twelfth Night"--which I thought was okay. At the time I didn't get a lot of the humor, but I thought the plot was kind of interesting. I also remember going to see "The Taming of the Shrew" performed in a round, outdoor theater designed to imitate the theaters of Shakespeare's day. It was a great experience and it made it very easy to understand. I believe I also had to read either "Hamlet" or "Macbeth"--I remember thinking it was okay.

I did find Shakespeare somewhat difficult to understand, but the footnotes helped and I would stop every couple lines to make sure I understood what was going on.

Answer 3

I remember being deeply moved and totally enthralled by OTHELLO. ROMEO AND JULIET was the original WEST SIDE STORY, but no music, except Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky's ballet and tone poem. I wasn't as impressed. Lear I only understood after seeing Kurosawa's film. MACBETH was great. But Lady Macbeth steals the play. Verdi's opera is great, once you get past the roller rink music. Shirley Verret is particularly outstanding in the role. Leonie Rysanek is the greatest Lady Macbeth ever. I found his poetry upsetting, and I'm a poet. I didn't get it, didn't like it. TWELFTH NIGHT was mean, as were most of his comedies, and I rejected them. The language was stilted and not easy to tackle. Now I love a few of these works.in school, OTHELLO, MACBETH, and RICHARD III in college. Period.

Answer 4

I have had many, but I suppose my best was with "Romeo and Juliette". (Sp?) That play meant so much to me. I still can't see it without crying. It did my sister in, too. She became so obsessed with it, she began talking in R&J lingo. And she would often recite "What light through yonder window breaks?" and "Oh, Romeo, deny thy father and refuse thy name! What's in a name? A rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet. So Romeo would! (I might have blown that part). Were he a Capulet, ... I can't go on. Getting tired. As for bad ones, yes, I have a few of those, too. If I weren't so tired from a long day of class, gardening, cooking, cleaning, solving family problems, etc., I would love to help.

Answer 5

Hmmm well i remember in high school we did Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Macbeth, and my teacher made us act out a scene in groups of like four people, but we had to do it in modern times to help the class understand what the scene was saying.
i loved it, it helped me interpret shakespeare into modern times, it made it easier to remember, and a lot of fun.

we watched a variation of the movies too, like two different Romeo and Juliet's, etc... compared them in class.

Answer 6

I've only done one play of his, Hamlet, and then had to write a five page analasis on it withing two weeks. I frankly hated the writing part, because that was my first writing class (now it's a breeze), but I absolutely loved reading the play, it was just awesome.

Answer 7

Mostly, we just read the plays out of our schoolbooks. In my senior year, however, we read Macbeth and the teacher actually encouraged us to read the lines with emotion just like we were acting it. I read the part of Macduff and thouroughly (sp?) loved it.

Answer 8

I'm not that old to know. I guess his classmates liked him.

Answer 9

loveable