Spring 2011

Shakespeare Made Fun did what the title promised, made learning about William Shakespeare - western drama's most significant playwright - more interesting, easier, and dare we say it...fun! For those students who had never studied, read or seen Shakespeare, this class was a light and silly introduction to the Bard, his iconic characters and stories, his humor and how he influenced (and continues to influence) the theatre, acting, storytelling, language, and popular culture. For those students who have read or seen a Shakespeare play, but didn't understand it... this class encouraged them to go back and try again. For those students who have studied, but may have come to dislike Shakespeare... the class encouraged them to give him another chance.

Condensed Shakespeare Soup was a series of comedy sketches in the spirit and style of such great sketch comedy TV shows as Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, The Carol Burnett Show, Monty Python's Flying Circus and Saturday Night Live.

The 35 skits ranged from scenes with a number of actors--stories lifted right from Shakespeare but presented in a more "modern" fashion. There were segments based on a quote from Shakespeare then completely (and hilariously) taken out of context. Still other sketches starred Shakespearean characters in not-so-Shakespearean situations. There were a few songs, like great Broadway show tunes or TV theme songs, rewritten to fit our show and a couple of sonnets, written by Shakespeare...interpreted by Shorewood Drama Jr. All of these skits were adapted, borrowed, distorted, mangled, manipulated, paraphrased, revised, reduced, transformed, updated, and stolen from...William Shakespeare and popular culture, movies, TV, cartoons, Vaudeville, children's literature, non-sense poetry, pop music, sports and Broadway.