What do you know about
Shakespeare?
 Nothing
 A little
 I have read a few of his plays
 I am a Shakespeare Expert
Have you seen any of Shakespeare's plays performed,
this includes film adaptations (Baz Luhrman's Romeo
& Juliet, 10 Things I Hate About You, etc.)?
 What are your anxieties about Shakespeare?
Anything that you are dreading?
William Shakespeare
Brief History
Early Life
 Parents John Shakespeare
and Mary Arden
 Baptized 26 April 1564 in
Stratford-upon-Avon
 Birthday unknown
 Married Anne Hathaway 27
November 1582
 Susana born 26 May 1583
(6 months after marriage)
 Twins Hamnet and Judith 2
February 1585
Shakespeare’s house in
Stratford
Playwright
 Believed to start working in
London in 1592
 Globe Theater constructed
1599
 Wrote 37 plays
 Tragedies, Comedies, and
Histories
 Ex: Julius Caesar, Othello, A
Midsummer Night’s Dream,
Much Ado About Nothing,
Romeo and Juliet, Richard
III, Henry VIII, Hamlet
Later Life
 1603-1610 Plague broke out and playhouse shutdown often.
 Slowed down writing in 1610 and none after 1613
 23 April 1616 Shakespeare died
 His son died young and his two daughters had children, but
they all died childless
Good friend, for Jesus' sake forebeare
To digg the dust enclosed heare;
Bleste be the man that spares thes stones,
And curst be he that moves my bones
Legacy- Movies based on Plays
 Lion King- Hamlet
 10 Things I Hate About You- Taming of the Shrew
 She’s the Man- Twelfth Night
 Warm Bodies- Romeo and Juliet
 Mean Girls- Julius Caesar
 Get Over It- A Midsummer Night’s Dream
 Has been played in thousands of theaters, schools, and
movies, and will continue to for many years to come.
3 Things to Remember When Reading
Shakespeare
 Shakespeare never intended his plays to be read
(First Folio printed 16 years after death)
 We will watch them as well as read
 Shakespeare’s plays are open to interpretation
 You can get out of them what you want to get out
 Shakespeare wrote for mass appeal
 Try to enjoy and don’t get bogged down by language
Pre-read the Dramatis Personae to
create Character Bookmarks
 Analyze and discuss the cast list with an eye towards
relationships and social status. Have students depict the
characters on their bookmarks based on what they've
inferred from the Dramatis Personae.
 Students might group characters by family, by status, by
nationality, etc., and might use lists, drawings, or other
creative means to represent the cast of Othello.