Exploring Shakespeare: Hamlet

Skills addressed:
- reading Shakespeare aloud
- mining Shakespeare's language for meaning
- scansion (analysis of poetic rhythm)
- mining Shakespeare's language for clues to character and action
- acting basics: objective, obstacle, relationship, given circumstances
- giving and receiving constructive feedback

I am a classical actor and teaching artist who has performed in Hamlet twice and co-directed it once with high school students. I have taught Shakespeare to high school and middle school students for the past 20 years in many different settings, from single-day workshops to two-week camps to semester-long classes. I have been a teaching artist in theatres around the US, including the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington DC, Imagination Stage in Maryland, and others. I was adjunct faculty for two years at Seattle Pacific University, where I directed the University Players, a touring troupe that wrote two scripts per year and toured them to high schools, churches, and community spaces throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Degrees earned: 
BA, Theatre and English, Seattle Pacific University
MFA, Classical Acting, The Shakespeare Theatre Company/George Washington University

Students will be assigned a role for each act in the play. They will be expected to analyze their character's language, looking for clues to meaning and clues to how the character might be played by an actor. This work will take about an hour per class meeting. Throughout our time together, students will be given tools and methods to help them complete their analysis.

2 hours 30 minutes per week in class, and an estimated 1 - 2 hours per week outside of class.

Each learner will need a copy of Shakespeare's play Hamlet. I recommend the Folger Shakespeare Library edition because it provides excellent notes and defines unfamiliar words on each page.