Shakespeare LIVE! Preparing Your Students
The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey is committed to making Shakespeare LIVE! a useful and rewarding educational experience for students and teachers alike. This is not just an hour's entertainment, but an educational experience that reinforces students' educational objectives.
Before your performance, teachers have free access to our comprehensive study guide for the play you have selected. We strongly encourage you to select and reproduce material from these guides for your students before they attend the performance. Included are sections on Shakespeare's life and art, a synopsis and background material on that particular play, performance and writing activities, and questions for further discussion. Your feedback on the Study Guide is welcomed!
We also encourage you to discuss appropriate audience etiquette with your students. For some of them, this may be their first experience with live theatre, so please discuss, for example, the difference between live theatre and a movie. This will help make the show more rewarding for them and for us!
Following the performance, our actors will engage your students in a 10-15 minute discussion of the play and Shakespeare's works.
Teachers are also encouraged to take advantage of our innovative summer professional development institute, ShakeFest. It is loaded with interactive and insightful activities for making Shakespeare come to life in your classroom.
