The Acting Company’s production of Dear Educator,

As you make plans for your students to attend an upcoming presentation of the Arts for Youth program at the Lancaster Performing Arts Center, we invite you to prepare your students by using this guide to assure that from beginning to end their experience is both memorable and educationally enriching. The material in this guide is for you, the teacher, and will assist you in preparing your students before the day of the event, and extend the educational value beyond the walls of the theatre when the show is over. We provide activity and/or discussion ideas, and other resources that will help prepare your students to better understand and enjoy what they are about to see, and to help them connect what they see on stage to their studies. We also encourage you to discuss important aspects of the artistic experience, including audience and theatre etiquette.

We hope that your students find their imagination comes alive as lights shine, curtains open, and applause rings through the Lancaster Performing Arts Center. As importantly, we hope that this Curriculum Guide helps you to bring the arts alive in your classroom!

Thank you for joining with us to make a difference in the lives of our Antelope Valley youth.

Bobbi Keay Arts for Youth Program Specialist Lancaster Performing Arts Center, City of Lancaster

Bobbi Keay ArtsPRE for-PERFORMANCE Youth Program Specialist Lancaster Performing Arts Center, City of Lancaster Overview of California Content Standards for Public Schools ...... 3

Theatre Etiquette ...... 4

About the Show……………………...... 5

Biography of ...... 6

How to Talk Like Shakespeare...... 7

Quiz ………………………………………………..………………...... 8

Vocabulary……………………...... 9

POST-PERFORMANCE

Suggestions for Discussion...... 9-10

Resources ...... 11

Our Arts for Youth program is aligned with the content standards for the California Visual and Performing Arts (and more) for K-12 education, and the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).

Curriculum Connections: Visual and Performing Arts: Theatre; English Language Arts (Spoken Word, Poetry, Literature, Creative Writing); Physical Education, Creativity and teamwork, and Communication. History, Cultural studies, and Diversity.

Applicable California Content Standards Samples easily applied in your classroom:

English Language Arts - Reading • Grade 6: 1.3 Recognize the origins and meanings of frequently used foreign words in English and use these words accurately in speaking and writing. • Grade 7: 1.1 Identify idioms, analogies, metaphors, and similes in prose and poetry. e.g Articulate the expressed purposes and characteristics of different forms of prose (e.g., short story, novel, novella, essay). 3.2 Identify events that advance the plot and determine how each event explains past or present action(s) or foreshadows future action(s). 3.3 Analyze characterization as delineated through a character’s thoughts, words, speech patterns, and actions; the narrator’s description; and the thoughts, words, and actions of other characters. 3.4 Identify and analyze recurring themes across works (e.g., the value of bravery, loyalty, and friendship; the effects of loneliness). • Grade 8: 3.1 Determine and articulate the relationship between the purposes and different forms of poetry (e.g., ballad, lyric, couplet, epic, elegy, ode, and sonnet). • Grade 11 & 12: 3.1 Analyze characteristics of subgenres (e.g., satire, parody, allegory, pastoral) that are used in poetry, prose, plays, novels, short stories, essays, and other basic genres. 3.4 Analyze ways in which poets use imagery, personification, figures of speech, and sounds to evoke readers’ emotions. 3.6 Analyze the way in which authors through the centuries have used archetypes drawn from myth and tradition in literature, film, political speeches, and religious writings (e.g., how the archetypes of banishment from an ideal world may be used to interpret Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth). 3.7 Analyze recognized works of world literature from a variety of authors: a. Contrast the major literary forms, techniques, and characteristics of the major literary periods (e.g., Homeric Greece, medieval, romantic, neoclassic, modern).

LESSON PLAN IDEA: Allow students the opportunity to practice speech/performance by repeating a well-known prose, such as “To Be or Not to Be”. Stress the importance of personification, sounds, and gestures to evoke emotions.

Suggested Common Core State Standards easily applied in your classroom:

 7.RL.5: Analyze how a drama’s form or structure (e.g., soliloquy, sonnet) contributes to its meaning.  9-10.RL 9: Analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific work (e.g., how Shakespeare treats a theme or topic from Ovid or the Bible or how a later author draws on a play by Shakespeare).  11-12.RL.7: Analyze multiple interpretations of a story or drama (e.g., recorded or live production of a play or recorded novel or poetry); evaluating how each version interprets the source text. (Include at least one play by Shakespeare and one play by an American dramatist.) LESSON PLAN IDEA #1: Students read the script prior to attending the performance. Students study, discuss, compare, and contrast the story with the live production and other versions. (Engage in further discussions: 7.RL.5, 7.RL.7, 9-10.RI.3, 11-12.RI.3, 11-12.RL.7)

LESSON PLAN IDEA #2: Students study, produce, rehearse, and perform a condensed version of the play. (7.RL.4)

• Please arrive on time. Plan for possible travel and parking delays; arrive a minimum of 30 minutes prior to show time. • Students: Leave recording devices of any kind at home or in your backpack at school. Video or audio recording and photography, including camera phones, are often prohibited by law and may disrupt the performance. They are not permitted and are considered very rude to the performers and to those around you. • Teachers: Turn off or silence all personal electronics. Beeps, clicks, tones, buzzes and light pollution emanated by personal electronics such as watches, Bluetooth devices, cell phones, etc. interrupt the performance and spoil the theatre experience. •Observe the instructions of the ushers. The ushers are present to offer assistance, ensure rules are observed and provide guidance in the case of an emergency. Please show them consideration. You will be asked to exit to the right of the theatre at the end of the performance. •Be Respectful. While entering and exiting the theatre: Please enter quietly. Once seated: Do not talk. Keep your feet on the ground and put your hands in your lap or fold your arms. •Abstain from eating or drinking inside the theatre. Crackling wrappers and beverage containers in the auditorium are unwelcome. Food, candy, gum and drinks should never be brought inside the theatre. •Avoid talking, waving and shouting during the performance. Laughing and applauding are encouraged at appropriate times. Shouting to actors/friends is disrespectful to others. Save personal conversation for after the show. If you must speak, please whisper very quietly. •Please avoid exiting the auditorium during the performance. Teachers, please arrive early enough to escort students to the restroom prior to the start of the show. If you must leave during the show, please wait for an appropriate break in the performance. •Do not get onto the stage or place items on the edge of the stage. To ensure the safety and security of performers and audiences, this behavior is strictly prohibited unless expressly permitted by a performer or staff member. •Dispose of garbage in proper receptacles. Help preserve a pleasant environment by depositing all debris in appropriate receptacles. •Extend common courtesy and respect to your fellow audience members. Civility creates a comfortable and welcoming theatre experience for all. •Bring very small children only to age-appropriate performances. Small children easily become restless at programs intended for older children, and may cause distractions.

The Performance

To be, or not to be—that is the question.

Presented by The Acting Company of (of which Kevin Kline was a founding member), this will be the first production of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet in the Company’s 40-year history. The play dramatizes the revenge Prince Hamlet exacts for his father’s murder, setting him on a journey seeking his personal mortality. It vividly portrays overwhelming grief and rage while exploring themes of danger, revenge and moral corruption.

Hamlet is among Shakespeare’s most powerful and influential tragedies in English literature, one of Shakespeare’s most popular works during his lifetime and still ranking among his most-performed. Many believe that Hamlet is the best of Shakespeare’s work, the perfect play and certainly one of his most well-known and oft-quoted plays.

Ian Belknap, The Acting Company’s Artistic Director, brings this masterpiece to life having previously directed The Acting Company’s The Comedy of Errors and John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men.

About The Acting Company "The Acting Company endures as the major touring classical theatre in the United States." — The legendary and current Producing Artistic Director Margot Harley founded The Acting Company in 1972 - with the first graduating class of The Juilliard School's Drama Division - to develop classically trained American actors and a national audience for the theater. The Acting Company has gone on to win Obie, Audelco, Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards and a TONY.

Kevin Kline, Patti LuPone, Rainn Wilson, Jeffrey Wright, Frances Conroy, Harriet Harris, Jesse L. Martin, David Schramm, Henry Stram, Tom Hewitt, David Ogden Stiers and Hamish Linklater are just a few of the hundreds of actors whose careers began on tour with The Acting Company, which has performed 136 productions for millions of people in the United States, London, Australia, Russia and Eastern Europe. The Acting Company has garnered critical acclaim on a national scale with these 136 productions and 39 seasons of classic, contemporary, and new plays. The Acting Company’s Education Programs - including master classes, student matinees and weeklong artistic residencies - have reached tens of thousands of students. It promotes theater and literacy by bringing a touring repertory of classical productions, talented young actors and teaching artists into communities across America, particularly those where live performance and theater arts education is limited or non-existent. They perform each year in over 50 cities to audiences of 70,000, and reach more than 25,000 students with its arts education programs.

or over 400 years, the work of actor, poet, and playwright William Shakespeare has fascinated people of all walks of life, all over the world. In fact, many people consider him to be the greatest dramatist ever. Altogether, Shakespeare wrote 37 plays, including comedies, tragedies, and histories. He also wrote more than 150 sonnets, establishing himself as one of the greatest lyric poets of his era. Shakespeare’s many plays and poems reveal his talents as a writer and perhaps his ardent understanding of human nature. The personalities of his main characters are often complex, suggesting the ambiguities and personal conflicts found in all of us.

Childhood: Shakespeare spent his youth in Stratford-upon-Avon, a small English sheep market village near London during the Elizabethan era. Birth certificates were not issued at the time of Queen Elizabeth, but his baptismal record was dated April 26, 1564. Because baptisms were normally performed within a few days of birth it is highly likely that Shakespeare was born in April 1564.

Family: His father John Shakespeare was a successful glove maker and alderman (town official). His mother, Mary Arden, came from a family of wealthy land owners (a daughter of the gentry). His father, prosperous at the time of William's birth, was prosecuted for unlicensed dealing in wool and later lost his position as an alderman. The family had long sought armorial bearings and the status of gentleman. William's father, a bailiff with a wife of good birth, was eligible for a coat of arms and applied, but was not granted due to his financial decline. The application was eventually successfully renewed in 1596, most probably at the instigation of William, as he was the more prosperous at that time. The theme of social status and restoration runs deep through the plots of many of his plays, and at times Shakespeare seems to mock his own longing. At age 18 in 1582, Shakespeare married , 26, with whom he had three children, Susanna, Hamnet, and Judith. Scholars believe that Shakespeare might have worked as a school teacher during the early years of his marriage. He owned property in both Stratford and London, and died April 23, 1616 at the age of 52. In a poem expressing her love for Shakespeare, Hathaway wrote: For queens themselves might envy me, Who scarce in palaces can find My Willie’s form, with Willie’s mind.

Education: Unlike many other writers of his time, he did not receive a formal education at a university; but it is believed that he received good formal literary training in the local grammar school. The grammar curriculum was standardized by royal decree throughout England, and the local school would have provided an intensive education in Latin grammar and literature (the classics). In the mid-16th century, Edward VI, the king honored in the school's name, allocated money to give to a network of grammar schools to propagate good literature throughout the kingdom. As a part of this education, the students were exposed to Latin plays that students performed to better understand the language. One of Shakespeare's earliest plays, The Comedy of Errors, bears similarity to Plautus's Menaechmi, which was most likely performed at the school. During the period when he was likely continuously living in Stratford according to records, play companies made at least 13 visits to the town. On two occasions, the players performed in front of town officials, including his father, who as bailiff was required to license playing companies before they could perform.

Theatrical Career in London: In the late 1580s, Shakespeare moved to London and quickly became prominent in the theater. He joined Lord Chamberlain’s Men, the most popular play company in London. With this troupe, he acted in productions throughout the 1590s and gave two special performances for Queen Elizabeth I. By late 1594, Shakespeare was part-owner of Lord Chamberlain's Men, whom for most of his career, Shakespeare also wrote plays for. After the death of their prior sponsor, it became known as the King's Men. The company held exclusive rights to perform Shakespeare's plays. Shakespeare’s plays earned him recognition as one of the greatest playwrights in England. He wrote in the language of ordinary people during his time, and the characters and situations in his plays appealed to a variety of people in English society—from kings and queens to peasants who could not read or write. By 1598 he also began to gain fame as an actor, appearing at the top of a list of actors in two plays. His name also began to appear on the title pages of his plays, presumably as a selling point. In the late 1590s and early 1600s, Shakespeare devoted more time to writing and produced many of his greatest tragedies, including , Macbeth, and Hamlet. Shakespeare evidently grew wealthy enough during his stay in London to buy a property in Blackfriars, London and own the second-largest house in Stratford, New Place. In 1610 he retired and returned to Stratford, where his family had lived throughout his career. Despite the popularity of his work, Shakespeare never created a collection of his own plays for publication. Shakespeare died in 1616 at the age of fifty-two and was buried under the floor of Stratford Church. Knowing that burial space in the church was limited and that graves were often moved after someone died, Shakespeare used his epitaph as a warning: Blest be the man that spares these stones, And curst be he that moves my bones.

1. Instead of you, say thou or thee (and instead of y’all, say ye.) 2. Rhymed couplets are all the rage. 3. Men are Sirrah, ladies are Mistress, and your friends are all called Cousin. 4. Instead of cursing, try calling your tormenters jackanapes or canker-blossoms or poisonous bunch-back’d toads. 5. Don’t waste time saying "it," just use the letter "t" (’tis, t’will, I’ll do’t). 6. Verse for lovers, prose for ruffians, songs for clowns. 7. When in doubt, add the letters "eth" to the end of verbs (he runneth, he trippeth, he falleth). 8. To add weight to your opinions, try starting them with methinks, mayhaps, in sooth or wherefore. 9. When wooing ladies: try comparing her to a summer’s day. If that fails, say "Get thee to a nunnery!" 10. When wooing lads: try dressing up like a man. If that fails, throw him in the Tower, banish his friends and claim the throne.

As I declare our Poet, him Whose insight makes all others dim. A thousand poets pried at life And only one amid the strife Rose to be Shakespeare. —Robert Browning, nineteenth-century English poet

To prepare yourself for the show, take this quiz!

What is a mountebank? a. a traveling drug-seller that sells quack medicine b. a wealthy landowner Answers: c. a small hill near a river What is a mountebank? What are gaskins? a. a traveling drug-seller that sells quack medicine a. plates of armor used to protect the forearms. b. woodland fairies What are gaskins? c. breeches c. breeches

What does it mean to be tristful? What does it mean to be a. to be angry tristful? b. to be sorrowful b. to be sorrowful c. to be delicious To what does "hurly burly" To what does "hurly burly" refer? refer? a. an extremely hairy man. b. the commotion and uproar b. the commotion and uproar of battle. of battle. c. a game played by children in the late 16th century. What is a harpy? What is a harpy? a. a mythical creature that was half woman and half vulture. a. a mythical creature that was half woman and half vulture. b. anything that sounds like a harp. What is a taper? c. a basin used for washing. c. a candle.

What is a taper? If someone tells you to a. someone who sticks things together. “reverb no hollowness”, what b. a musical instrument similar to a guitar. are they telling you to do? c. a candle. a. be quiet.

If someone tells you to “reverb no hollowness”, what are they telling you to do? What does it mean to a. be quiet. “dismount thy tuck”? b. ring a bell instead of knocking. b. remove your sword from its scabbard. c. stop dancing.

What does it mean to “dismount thy tuck”? a. get off of your horse. b. remove your sword from its scabbard. c. rebuke a fairy.

Aside: a remark made by an actor, usually to the audience, which the other characters on stage supposedly cannot hear House Lights: the lights that illuminate the audience seating Star-crossed lover: unlucky, i.e. not favored by the stars. Origin- the phrase originates from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, 1592: A pair of star-cross’d lovers, take their life. Sprites: imps and supernatural creatures that were imagined to have human form (e.g. Jack Frost) Couplet: a pair of successive lines of verse, especially a pair that rhymes and is of the same length The Great Bard: Another name for William Shakespeare. Bard = Poet. Tragedy: a dramatic composition, often in verse, dealing with a serious or somber theme, typically that of a great person destined through a flaw of character or conflict with some overpowering force, as fate or society, to downfall or destruction. Comedy: a play, movie, etc., of light and humorous character with a happy or cheerful ending; a dramatic work in which the central motif is the triumph over adverse circumstance, resulting in a successful or happy conclusion.

1. What were some of the ways you used your own imagination to understand the plot? 2. Discuss some of the contrasts used in the play. Consider characters, ideas, places, and times. 3. Why do you think Shakespeare and his work have endured for more than 400 years? 4. Have you heard of The Utah Shakespearean Festival or the Oregon Shakespeare Festival? Visit http://www.bard.org/ and http://www.osfashland.org/ to learn more about them and create your own idea!

Founded in 1961, The Utah Shakespeare Festival is located on the Southern Utah University campus in Cedar City, Utah. The Festival is a total “experience”; theatre and activities bring Shakespeare and other great playwrights to audiences, and entire eras come to life. Festival Founder Fred C. Adams gained his inspiration for the festival from the granddaddy of all Shakespeare festivals, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Plays were originally produced on an outdoor platform backed by a partial replica of an Elizabethan stagehouse. Today, the Festival’s well-known outdoor theatre, The Adams Memorial Shakespearean Theatre, is one of the most authentic Elizabethan theatres in the world. Dedicated in 1977, the Theatre is surrounded by permanent orchestra and gallery seating. The theatre so closely resembles Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London that in 1981 the British Broadcasting Company chose it as the location for some of its filming of its Shakespeare series.

The theatre’s initial two-week season of three plays attracted 3,276 spectators, yielding $2,000 to start the 2nd season. In 2003, nearly 150,000 ticket-holders viewed 246 performances in three theatres during the sixteen-week season. The Festival is now a year-round operation with a full-time staff of 26 and a budget of over $5 million dollars, as well as an ongoing educational outreach program, including workshops and a touring version of one of Shakespeare’s popular plays. A small, state-of-the-art flexible theatre is in the works for the New American Playwrights Project. The program will eventually evolve into fully-mounted, modern plays, by “the Shakespeares of tomorrow.”

Founded in 1935, the Tony Award-winning Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) is among the oldest and largest professional non-profit theatres in the nation. Each year OSF presents an eight-and-a-half-month season of eleven plays in three theatres plus numerous ancillary activities, and undertakes an extensive theatre education program. Operating on a budget exceeding $26 million, OSF presents more than 780 performances annually with attendance of approximately 400,000.

There are many other festivals. Check them out here: http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/festivals.htm

5. Study Shakespeare’s works:

Plays marked with an asterisk (*) are now commonly referred to as the 'romances'. Plays marked with two asterisks (**) are sometimes referred to as the 'problem plays'.

Comedies

 The Tempest *, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Measure for Measure **, The Comedy of Errors, Much Ado About Nothing, Love's Labour's Lost, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice **, As You Like It, The Taming of the Shrew, All's Well That Ends Well **, , The Winter's Tale *, Pericles, Prince of Tyre * , The Two Noble Kinsmen *

Histories

 King John, Richard II, Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2, Henry V, Henry VI, Part 1, Henry VI, Part 2, Henry VI, Part 3, Richard III, Henry VIII

Tragedies

 Troilus and Cressida **, Coriolanus, Titus Andronicus, Romeo and Juliet, Timon of Athens, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, Antony and Cleopatra, Cymbeline*

Poems

 Shakespeare's sonnets, Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece, The Passionate Pilgrim,

The Phoenix and the Turtle, A Lover’s Complaint, Funeral Elegy by W.S.

6. Study and perform Shakespearean Plays  Abridged scripts of Shakespeare's works (Resources for Teaching and Performing the Bard): https://sites.google.com/site/englishclassinperformance/home

Study guide created by: Lancaster Performing Arts Center Staff

Other Resources: hamletguide.com shakespeare.mit.edu en.wikipedia.org dictionary.com talklikeshakespeare.org flocabulary.com/topics/shakes peare/ shakespeare.palomar.edu/fest ivals.htm phrases.org.uk/meanings/phra ses-sayings-shakespeare.html

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