Want to make Shakespeare interesting?
Students often begrudge teachers’ comments that they will be studying one off Shakespeare’s plays. Oftentimes students feel that the language is too hard and the material was written too long ago for them to understand. One way to make Shakespeare interesting to students is to have them perform their own parodies. A common theme in Shakespeare’s plays is the world as a stage. In Macbeth, Julius Caesar and As You Like It Shakespeare provides a total of twenty eight lines of parodies regarding this theme (Gibson 136-137). After presenting the parodies to the students haven them write and title their own parody regarding this theme. Students can then volunteer to perform or just read aloud their parody. You can even bring in a video camera and have the students bring costumes to make it a theatrical event! Enjoy!