William Shakespeare was ahead of his time when he wrote “listen to many, speak to a few.” Professors put those words into practice at a recent Scripps College workshop where they traded insights on how to effectively teach the Bard’s magical words.
“We explored strategies to encourage students to view Shakespeare as an artist at work rather than perceiving his work as a rigid set of texts,” says Jacqueline Wernimont, an assistant professor of English at Scripps College who helped organize the event. “Rather than shutting ourselves up in the cloisters of long studied contexts, we should feel free to bring a range of lived and living contexts to bear on our readings and performances of Shakespeare’s writings.”
Scripps College hosted the “21st Century Shakespeare” faculty workshop from March 9 to 11. Liberal arts professors from throughout the country shared strategies on how to teach Shakespeare’s works in current cultural contexts and with emerging technologies. The program was underwritten by a Mellon Faculty Career Enhancement Grant.
Through the grant, professors flew to New York City last summer to attend performances of England’s Royal Shakespeare Company – the RSC – at the Park Avenue Armory, which seeks to reproduce the setting of the Globe Theater in London. They then came to Scripps College for the workshops and created a blog to share resources with the community at large.
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