Drama Teachers Directing Shakespeare for the First Time

Episode 169: Drama Teachers Directing Shakespeare for the First time If you’re a drama teacher, at some point Shakespeare should make it on to your stage. But what if you’ve hated him since high school yourself? Shakespeare is a challenge, it’s a great challenge and one that is easier to embrace than sky diving. Maybe. Listen to a couple of teachers talk about their first time battling the bard. Show Notes Romeo and Juliet 1 hour cut with annotations Much Ado About Nothing 1 hour cut with annotations Shakespeare adaptations and parodies including Drop Dead Juliet & Much Ado High School Shakespeare in an Hour Solo-Speare a collection of Shakespeare Monologues Scene-Speare a collection of Shakespeare Scenes Episode Transcript Welcome to TFP – The Theatrefolk Podcast – the place to be for Drama teachers, Drama students, and Theatre educators everywhere. I’m Lindsay Price, resident playwright for Theatrefolk. Hello! I hope you're well. Thanks for listening! All right, this is Episode 169. You can find any links to this episode in the show notes which are at Theatrefolk.com/episode169. Ever since it’s been made aware to me that I saw “drama” weird, that’s all I think about every time I do these podcast intros “Is drama the right way to say it?” You guys will still like me, right? If I say drama the wrong way. Okay. Today, we are talking Shakespeare and Shakespeare in school – middle school and high school. I know that, just by saying that sentence, either there was a smile on your face – “Shakespeare! Yay!” – or you made a scrunchy face, right? Or your stomach went all squishy. You’re thinking about that experience right now, right? Your experience with Shakespeare is one of those two things it’s either “Shakespeare!” or it’s “ugh, Shakespeare.” But, if you are a drama teacher, at some point, Shakespeare should make it onto your stage. What if you have hated him since high school? Shakespeare is a challenge – yup, it’s a great challenge! It’s one that is probably easier to embrace than skydiving but, you know, I could be wrong. In this podcast, we’ve got two teachers – Heidi Frederic and Hilary Martin – both of whom, in the past year, directed Shakespeare for the first time. It took Heidi fourteen years of teaching before she was able to tackle the bard. In Hilary’s case, not only was she directing Shakespeare for the first time but many of her actors were acting Shakespeare for the first time. They had no previous exposure. That sounds like an adventure! Yeah, I think so. Let’s find out. Let’s get to it! LINDSAY: I am talking with Heidi Frederic. Hello, Heidi! HEIDI: Hi! LINDSAY: How are you doing today? HEIDI: I’m great! How are you? LINDSAY: I am swell. So, tell everybody, where in the world are you? HEIDI: I am in Louisiana. I’m in a small town called St. Amant which is probably about twenty minutes south of Baton Rouge and about forty minutes north of New Or...