All the world's a stage!

Tween Book Club met today and we went mad about the Bard!



A Winter's Tale



Today we FINALLY used the Masterpuppet Theater set that was donated to us by Eric at Quirk Books and we had a blast!

The goal of the day was to perform Shakespeare in Sixty Seconds. Inspired by the BBC's contest we wanted to act out the plays in a condensed form.
We started with clips of Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth  from The Reduced Shakespeare Company to get a feel of the stage and the actors. Despite some remarks about the language and having trouble with what was being said, there were many chuckles from the group as we watched the performances.

Thou venom rude-growing scut!

Our next activity was a game of snaps using the Shakespeare Insult Kit. By far Thou goatish fat-kidneyed foot-licker was the favorite. This part was so much fun that we carried on a few extra minutes and made up a few of our own. Copies of the insults were made to be given to group members!

We finally used the puppets and performed scenes from The Winter's Tale (Act 3, scene 3 lines 15-38), 

Macbeth (Act 4, scene 1, lines 1-38) and Hamlet (Act 3, scene 1, lines 55-89).

A discussion of Hamet began and the group wanted to explore that at a future meeting.

We talked about modern takes on Shakespeare's works and watched a bit of West Side Story. We compared the begining riot with the Sharks and the Jets to the Family fued in Fair Verona.

Here is (an abbreviated) list of plays to help introduce you to the world of Shakespeare.


The Tragedies.

Hamlet

Macbeth

Romeo & Juliet

The Comedies.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

The Taming of the Shrew

Much Ado About Nothing



Books available at our meeting:
Adaptations


Romiette and Julio by Sharon Draper

The Total Tragedy of a Girl Named Hamlet by Erin Dunne

Romeo’s Ex by Lisa Fiedler

Dating Hamlet, Ophelia’s Story by Lisa Fieldler

Something Wicked by Alan Gratz

Something Rotten by Alan Gratz

Wicked Will by Bailey MacDonald

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt

Graphic Novels

Romeo and Juliet


Twelfth Night

Picture Books

Romeow and Drooliet by Nina Laden


Web Sites

Shakespeare's insults sound so good!


http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/dryfoo/Funny-pages/shakespeare-insult-kit.html

 http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/Shaker/



Words Shakespeare invented: http://www.nosweatshakespeare.com/resources/shakespeare-words.htm


Films

Hamlet:
The Lion King (2001) Let the Devil Wear Black (1999)

The Taming of the Shrew:
 Kiss Me Kate (1948)
10 Things I Hate About You

Macbeth:
Men of Respect (1991)
Scotland, PA (2001)

Romeo and Juliet
West Side Story (1961)
Romeo Must Die (2000)