Shakespeare Plays the Classroom

Bringing Shakespeare to the Sunshine State, this book gathers together a talented group of teachers, choreographers, directors, set designers, musicians, costumers, actors, and artists to discuss how they have adapted the bard's monologues in Miami, assassinated Julius Caesar on the steps of Tallahassee's Capitol, trained students to duel in Florida's Panhandle, placed Shylock on trial in Orlando, and transformed Gainesville into Puck's magical forest.

This guide for teachers and lovers of literature and theater is an original collection of essays exploring the idea that Shakespeare's plays are best approached playfully through performance. Based on their wide-ranging experience as theater professionals and teachers in Florida, New York, London, and Stratford, the authors celebrate Shakespeare's continuing appeal to our complex, diverse culture.

The essays include reflections on acting by the Royal Shakespeare Company's longest-serving member. And there's practical advice on acting; directing; staging fights; designing costumes; and integrating music, dance, masks, and puppets into performances from teachers and others who have refined their methods by performing Shakespeare in the classroom.

Stuart E. Omans, a professor of English at the University of Central Florida, where he teaches Shakespeare and drama, is founding artistic director of the Orlando–UCF Shakespeare Festival, founder of the Young Company, and cofounder of the Drey Shakespeare Institute. Maurice O’Sullivan is the Kenneth Curry Professor of Literature and chair of the English Department at Rollins College in Winter Park and cofounder of the Florida Center for Shakespeare Studies and the Drey Shakespeare Institute. He is the author of Shakespeare’s Other Lives and has coedited Florida in Poetry and other books.