Course Detail

Shakespeare's Playscripts


This course begins with the premise that Shakespeare's dramas, while composing an impressive body of literature, are first and foremost play scripts for actors who performed 400 years ago. As such, they require their own set of reading skills. Through regular writing assignments, class discussions, and acting workshops, students acquire the skills required to understand the words on the page as clues to their embodiment on the early modern stage. The course surveys plays across Shakespeare's theatrical career--comedies, histories, tragedies, and romances. Critical reading includes both literary criticism and theatrical history.  This course doesn't require a background in acting and isn't aimed at actors per se.  Rather, the course, which is aimed at both readers and actors, situates the plays in the theater for which they were written.





First-year students require permission of the instructor.