The Action to the Word, The Word to the Action: Teaching Shakespeare as Performance Litearture

Author

Catie Choate, Virginia Commonwealth UniversityFollow

DOI

https://doi.org/10.25772/BSGW-5J67

Defense Date

2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts

Department

Theatre

First Advisor

Dr. Noreen C. Barnes

Second Advisor

Dr. Aaron Anderson

Third Advisor

Shaun McCracken

Abstract

This paper details a class taught in the Virginia Commonwealth Theatre Department in Fall of 2015 on the works of William Shakespeare. Within both the class and this paper, I attempted to form the beginnings of a pedagogy of Shakespearean literature that incorporated elements of literary criticism, historical context and performance theory. Dramatic literature, including Shakespeare, is a moving target, as the text is reimagine and reinterpreted on stage again and again. My goal with this paper is to examine both how dramatic literature can be taught and the special challenges present in teaching it using Shakespeare as a case study, and to explore what is particularly meaningful about Shakespeare in the classroom.

Rights

© The Author

Is Part Of

VCU University Archives

Is Part Of

VCU Theses and Dissertations

Date of Submission

5-13-2016