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Act 1, Scene 1:
Getting Started

Guide to Educator
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For the K-3 teacher
For the 4-8 teacher
Shakespeare and
the TEKS

Texts for
classroom use

A Guide To The Plays
"A Most Rare Vision"–
Student and educator
voices

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  1. O, for a Muse of fire!
  2. Suggested activities:
    A quick overview
  3. Activities for ensemble play
  1. Yes!
  2. Group Sculptures
  3. Mirrors
  4. Sculpture Gallery
  5. Presents
  6. Have You Seen My Kitty?
  7. Magic Hat
  8. Hotseat, or, The Press Conference
  1. “I’ll follow you!”: A choral speech
  2. Three Worlds
  3. Two-character exchanges
  4. “Now I am alone”: The soliloquy
  5. Group voice: Sharing a character
  6. Showdown: Oberon vs. Titania
  1. Planning the Project: What do you want your students to achieve?
  2. Planning the Project: Making room for Shakespeare
  3. Planning the Project: The Final Performance
  4. A sample sequence
  5. Laying the foundation, establishing some rituals
  6. Preparing for the journey: A checklist
  7. We shall not cease from exploration

Materials needed:
A small “stage” area; can be at front of classroom; a class set of the "Soliloquies" text; a book such as Swan of Avon that includes a drawing of the theaters of Shakespeare’s time

Time needed:
10-40 minutes, depending on class response (be flexible and have a backup plan)

Students participating:
students volunteering one at a time

One amazing new element of Shakespeare for most students is that the performers sometimes speak directly to the audience. This is not something most kids experience in plays they might have seen. This solo speech is called a soliloquy. Sometimes, as in Hamlet’s case, they can last for five minutes; other times they are just a few moments. In them, a character can share inner thoughts by speaking them out loud.

The idea of the soliloquy takes some getting used to for kids. The first one in Midsummer is by Helena, who bemoans her problems with Demetrius. “Who is she talking to?” we ask the kids. Someone will offer, “Herself?” That’s true in a way, but there’s a second layer to it, so we ask, “Who else is there in the same space with that actor, at that moment?” “Oh -- the audience…!”

This exercise is very simple, just like the one above. It works because once you’ve established this as fun to try, most kids will want to give it a shot. If only a few want to try it, move on to the next piece. Be ready to keep the exercise short if the kids are still holding back. It’s good to have a “Plan B” activity waiting, either another language activity or one of the “Area 1” games.

If you are focusing on Midsummer, use the “Midsummer soliloquies” sheet here. This exercise can obviously be adapted for any play. Whatever you use, however, it’s best to trim it down to just 4-8 lines so kids can get a taste of the speech without getting tangled in too much new language.
  1. Show a drawing of the Globe theater during an imagined performance – there is a good one in the book Swan of Avon. Introduce the idea of the intimacy between player and audience in Shakespeare’s time: sharing the same light (daylight), only being a few feet a part, with the player almost surrounded by people, high and low. Discuss how this gave Shakespeaare the opportunity for a special sort of relationship with the audience.
  2. Write out the word “soliloquy” and have the kids repeat it after you, perhaps even copy the spelling. Discuss the root of the word – “soli” as in solo or solitary, “loquy” as in “language” or talking.
  3. Pass out the example soliloquies. Read them aloud and explain the setting of each one. Then ask the students to imagine that the front of the room is the stage of the “mini-Globe” and that the class is the audience. So now, the object is to see what it’s like to perform a bit of a soliliquy and make eye contact with the audience.
  4. Model this first for the students. Text in hand, pause on certain words or at moments of punctuation to make eye contact with different kids. Share the eye contact around the room very deliberately.
  5. As the students to discuss how you did this. Why not just look at one person the whole time? Students will begin to see how the soliloquy does a few things at once: sheds light on the character, builds a bond between the character and the audience, and invites the whole audience into feeling more involved in the play. All three are important.
  6. Ask for volunteers and allow students to take a shot at these. By the way, as with anything we do, “boys can play girls, girls can play boys.” The emphasis is on the words and the practice, so encourage boys to use Helena’s words (they don’t have to “act like a girl”) and girls to try Oberon’s words.
  7. As with the two-character scenes in the previous exercise, the repetition by different students should begin to result in a growing expressiveness. As before, stop to highlight key words. Have students underline or highlight these and give them extra emphasis. Work on fluency and volume; you can also challenge students to learn 1-2 lines of one of the speeches so they can try doing it without the text in hand.
  8. Challenge the students to try to learn one of the mini-speeches over the next few days. Some students may find it difficult at first to learn more than one or two lines overnight, but set a goal of everyone learning one of the soliloquy pieces by the end of the week.