Poetry Friday: Shakespeare for Kids
This spring I saw Shakespeare plays performed for kids and by kids. For me, both performances dispelled the notion that Shakespeare is too difficult for children. Two factors that contribute to this commonly-held notion is the antiquated language (Early Modern English) of the plays and the poetic style — blank verse — that the plays are written in. Many of us in North America particularly, are made to ‘study’ Shakespeare in school often without the context of seeing a performance of the play. Although this exposure might make some students fans of the Bard, it more often can turn them off.
I was therefore delighted to see how much my daughter enjoyed her visit to the Globe Theatre in London to see Romeo and Juliet. And I was equally delighted by our family’s recent visit to a local home-schooling association’s production of The Tempest. Both these experiences of Shakespeare were enhanced by the reading of Lois Burdett’s books on Shakespeare’s plays. Burdett, a teacher in Stratford, Ontario — home of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival — adapted the plays for elementary age school children. The books are a result of a process of working through the plays in fun and creative ways with children. Before seeing Romeo and Juliet, I read the Burdett book of the play to my daughter which familiarized her with the story. And the home school association production I saw used Burdett’s version of The Tempest to work with for their play.
In Burdett’s Tempest, Shakespeare’s blank verse is converted into lines of rhyming couplets. This form of the text retains much of the poetic quality of the original and is easier for children to memorize. The text is then accompanied by student generated illustrations and short pieces of interpretation written by students themselves. Burdett’s books allows readers to literally see the process of children working through the play’s characters and plot through images and words they have come up with themselves. Indeed, as Burdett’s book states on the cover, Shakespeare Can Be Fun!
This week’s Poetry Friday host is Becky’s Book Reviews.
July 18th, 2009 at 9:38 am
I couldn’t agree with you more! Blank verse is so wonderful when spoken aloud, as it’s meant to be but can be very difficult to get a hold on, when reading it.
Older Brother was in London on a school trip a few weeks ago and they had a behind-the scenes tour of the Globe, which was one of the highlights for him. We’re hoping to go and see A Midsummer Night’s Dream during these holidays – if we do, I’ll let you know how the boys enjoy it.
August 17th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
If you are a teacher or an interested parent, wwww.kidsloveshakespeare.com is a great resource of Shakespeare play scripts adapted for children, as well as some lesson plan ideas for teaching Shakespeare. They try hard to maintain some of the beauty and fun of Shakespeare’s language, while adapting them appripriately for primary age students.
August 17th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
Thanks, Shakespeare-for-kids for sharing about your website!