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A Study Guide For A Study Guide for By William Shakespeare Directed by Tom Ford Assistant Director: Jennifer Caster Sound Design: Peter John Still Set Design: Will Ledbetter Scenic Painter: Angi Grow Costume Design: Darrin Pufall Costume Assistants: Grace Slaughter and Dottie Special thanks to: BSU Theater Department Costume Shop Presented by Shakespearience a program of the Idaho Shakespeare Festival 2 table of contents Section one: WELCOME! Section three: AFTER THE SHOW Special thanks……………………………………….….pg 4 Activity: Breaking News!...................................pg 18 Using this study guide…………………………….….pg 4 Activity: Character Comparison…………………...pg 19 About the Idaho Shakespeare Festival…….….pg 5 Activity: Shakespearean Shorts..………………...pg 20 A note from the director……………………..……...pg 5 Activity: Art of the Pick-Up Line.…………..…..….pg 21-23 Discuss: Athenian Lovers……………………………pg 23 Activity: Sound Check………………………...………pg 24 Section two: BEFORE THE SHOW Exploring Midsummer………………………………..pg 25 Meet the Cast…………………………………………...pg 6 Activity: Art of the Insult……………………………..pg 26 About WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.………………….pg 7 Activity: #relationshipgoals.………………………..pg 27 A Midsummer Night’s Dream Introduction....pg 8 Activity: Think Like a Critic………………………....pg 28 A Midsummer Night’s Dream Summary……...pg 9 Theme to follow: Parent/Child Conflict..….…..pg 28 Character Connections……………………………….pg 10 Theme to follow: Escapism …...………….….…...pg 28 Did You Know? Facts………………………………….pg 11 Vocabulary Words……………………………………...pg 12 Section four: APPENDIX Activity: Word Search.…………………………………pg 13 Sources……………………………………………………..pg 29 Activity: The 15-Minute Play…………………….….pg 14-17 Suggested viewing/reading.………..………….…..pg 29 Discuss: Role of a Play-Within-A-Play …….….…pg 14 End Quote…………………………………………………..pg 30 Festival History………………………….………………..pg 31 3 welcome! A Very Special Thank You! Using This Guide... Dear Teachers, As a part of Idaho Shakespeare Festival’s educational programming, Shakespearience performances have Welcome to the Shakespearience study guide for A Midsummer enriched the lives of well over one million students and Night’s Dream. These materials have been designed to expand your teachers since 1981 with productions that convey the students’ engagement with the performance as well as provide back unique and impactful voice of theater arts. The magic of ground knowledge on William Shakespeare and the influential litera- this art form is brought to schools across the State of ture he wrote. Idaho each Winter/Spring semester with assistance This resource includes a range of information, discussion topics, and from a generous group of underwriters: activities that can stand on their own or serve as building blocks for a larger unit. The activities are designed to be mixed, matched and Arts Midwest National Endowment for the Arts modified to suit the needs of your particular students. Shakespeare in American Communities Inside, you’ll find activities to share with your students both before Idaho Commission on the Arts the show and after the show, indicated by headings at the top of the Idaho Humanities Council and National Endowment for the Humanities page. These are designed to help focus your students’ engagement Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation with the performance by giving them specific themes to watch out Idaho Community Foundation and the following funds: for, as well as topics for discussion following the performance. Each o F.M., Anne G. & Beverly B. Bistline Philanthropic Fund activity is designed to meet Idaho Standards of Education to foster o James A. Pinney Memorial Fund critical thinking and problem solving skills. o Perc H. Shelton & Gladys A. Pospisil Shelton Foundation o Gladys E. Langroise Advised Fund We encourage you and your students to share your thoughts with us! Wells Fargo Any of the artwork or activities your students send will be shared with Idaho Power Foundation the artists who created A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and any feed- John William Jackson Fund back from you will help to improve our study guides for future audi- The Whittenberger Foundation ences! Our mailing address is located on page 28. Thank you so much! 4 before the show About our education program… A Note From the Director... The Idaho Shakespeare Festival has become an integral part “How happy some o’er other some can be!” - Helena of the arts education throughout Idaho. The Festival’s “Lord, what fools these mortals be!” - Puck annual Shakespearience tour brings live theater to more than A Midsummer Night’s Dream is, perhaps, Shakespeare’s most popu- 25,000 high-school students in more than 70 Idaho lar play. It is produced by schools, community theaters and major pro- communities each year. Since it began touring in 1986, fessional theaters on a regular basis. Shakespearience has enriched the lives of nearly 500,000 Why is that? students. Well, arguably, it’s the most accessible and, in many ways, the most relatable of all of Shakespeare’s works. The full play and our produc- In 1999, the Festival assumed the operations of Idaho tion focuses on two romantic couples: Hermia and Lysander, and Hel- Theater for Youth (ITY). This alliance has more than ena and Demetrius. Hermia and Lysander are in love. Demetrius used to love Helena but is now in love with Hermia. During the course of the doubled the Festival’s annual educational programming, play and through the intervention of a mischievous spirit, Puck, these resulting in the Festival becoming the largest provider of couples break apart and come together and all is put “right.” professional, performing arts outreach in the state of Idaho. Even though the play finishes with a happy ending, we are challenged to engage in how fickle “love” can be. Why are we obsessed with a In addition to the statewide Idaho Theater forYouth school person and how does that change in an instant? Shakespeare engag- tour, which brings professional productions to nearly es us in this question in a comic fashion but the seriousness of the situation is brought forth as well. Is it the person we love who 30,000 students in grades K-6 across Idaho, the Festival changed? Or ourselves? oversees year-round School of Theater programs. This series Woven throughout the lovers’ story is the tale of a group of young ac- of classes in acting, playwriting and production, for tors putting on a play to celebrate the wedding of the Duke and Duch- students of all ages, enrolls over 300 Treasure Valley ess. The ineptitude but sincere desire to create is brought forth in all its silliness and moving innocence. students each year. Look for upcoming student productions throughout the summer, fall and spring. And finally, in our production, we use a “framing” device of students taking a Shakespeare class and a shy boy in that class who falls asleep and “dreams” the rest of the story. For more information on any of the Festival’s educational activities, please contact the Education Department at the We hope that you enjoy our production and that it leads to discussions of all kinds - both about the story of the play and our way of telling it. Idaho Shakespeare Festival offices or by email at [email protected]. -Tom Ford 5 before the show the cast of A Midsummer Night’s Dream meet the artists! Evan Stevens Puck Cameron Needham Lysander Jaime Nebeker Hermia content/uploads/2011/02/verona.jpg - Chris Canfield Bottom http://femalefundamentals.com/blog/wp Heather Thiry Chad Shohet Helena Demetrius Photo Photo courtesy of 6 before the show The Life and Times of William Shakespeare William Shakespeare was born in April 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, on England’s Avon River. Because of poor record-keeping in small towns, his exact day of birth is unknown; it is traditionally celebrated on April 23rd. When he was eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway (who was 26 at the time). The couple had three children, one of whom died of the plague in childhood. The bulk of Shakespeare’s working life was spent in London. He enjoyed success not only as a playwright, but also as an actor and shareholder in the acting company, Lord Chamberlain’s Men (later known as the King’s Men). In 1593 Shakespeare became a published poet; at the time theaters had been closed due to the plague, a contagious epidemic disease that devastated the population of London. He wrote many of his plays on English history as well as several comedies and at least two tragedies (Titus Andronicus and Romeo and Juliet). It is assumed that Shake- speare’s sonnets were also written during the 1590s. When the theaters reopened in 1594, Shakespeare continued his career as an actor, playwright, and acting company shareholder. His career would span over the next twenty years. In 1599, Lord Chamberlain’s Men built a theater for themselves across the river from London, naming it The Though there is certainly a standard Globe. The plays that are considered by many to be Shakespeare’s major tragedies (Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and depiction of his appearance, no portrait of Shakespeare was ever Macbeth) were written while the company was residing in this theater, as were such comedies as Twelfth Night and produced while he was alive; this Measure for Measure. Many of Shakespeare’s plays were performed at court (both for Queen Elizabeth I and her mysterious fact adds to the theory that successor King James I), some were presented at the Inns of Court (the residencies of London’s legal societies), and Shakespeare may have not been the some were doubtless performed in other towns, at the universities, and at great houses when the acting company artist behind his plays. went on tour. Between 1608 and 1612, Shakespeare wrote several plays — among them The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest — presumably for the company’s new indoor Blackfriars theater, though the plays seem to have been performed at the Globe and at court as well.
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