SEND FEEDBACK ABOUT THIS WEBSITE!
photo of teacher

Why Teach and Perform Shakespeare?
Learning from the Bard


Philip Levien , San Marcos High School
Santa Barbara, CA

Home
Building Community Learning and Performing Gatekeeper Texts Serving Diverse Learners

Context
Where do I teach?

Content
What are my students learning?

Teaching Practice
What's my approach?


Student Work

Reflections

Resources

Standards


Archive

Archive of Practice

Documentation of Teaching/ Classroom Videos

Document Commentary
Sheltered English Production Video
Edited video providing an overview of the production.
play
Quicktime Player
highlow

get plugin
Windows Media
highlow

get plugin
Claudia came in for extra help on her role during nutrition and lunch.                         
Reviewing the Text
September 27: reviewing the text
play
Quicktime Player
highlow

get plugin
Windows Media
highlow

get plugin

Actors are genuinely interested in the meaning of words they will have to say and to which they will have to respond.

Touring the Theater
October 14: touring the theater
play
Quicktime Player
highlow

get plugin
Windows Media
highlow

get plugin

Our actors watch a rehearsal of A Midsummer Night’s Dream on the main-stage.  Midsummer actors later came to one of our previews. 

Blocking
October 18th: Blocking
play
Quicktime Player
highlow

get plugin
Windows Media
highlow

get plugin

Students sign up for extra rehearsal and  production jobs.  We review the schedule.  We set up theatre.

Rehearsing
October 21: Rehearsing
play
Quicktime Player
highlow

get plugin
Windows Media
highlow

get plugin

Company of actors remains on-task for substitute teacher   

Rehearsing
October 28th: rehearsing
play
Quicktime Player
highlow

get plugin
Windows Media
highlow

get plugin

On this day, a student teacher and an aide for the special needs students join me.

Rehearsing
November 4: Rehearsing
play
Quicktime Player
highlow

get plugin
Windows Media
highlow

get plugin

Conferencing with individual students takes place before rehearsal begins.

Rehearsing
November 25th: Rehearsing
play
Quicktime Player
highlow

get plugin
Windows Media
highlow

get plugin


Invited previews have begun.

Final Rehearsals
December 2: Final rehearsals
play
Quicktime Player
highlow

get plugin
Windows Media
highlow

get plugin

Four languages spoken here in our prologue: English, Farci, Chinese, and Spanish.           

Dress Rehearsal
December 5: Dress rehearsal
play
Quicktime Player
highlow

get plugin
Windows Media
highlow

get plugin
We used props and comic bits to scaffold exposition for our actors and our audience.           
Final Performance
December 7: Final Performance
play
Quicktime Player
highlow

get plugin
Windows Media
highlow

get plugin
Claudia plays her objectives confidently, showing comprehension of the text.
Student Interviews
December 7: Student interviews
play
Quicktime Player
highlow

get plugin
Windows Media
highlow

get plugin
Post show interviews-after performance of A Comedy of Errors
Dean's Council
Presenting at UCSB's Dean's Council
play
Quicktime Player
highlow

get plugin
Windows Media
highlow

get plugin

It was exciting for the students to be honored at a luncheon at a major university campus.

Urban Sites Conference
Presenting at Urban Sites conference
play
Quicktime Player
highlow

get plugin
Windows Media
highlow

get plugin
The students used the positive audience response to find new values in their scripts.

Reflections on Teaching

Document Description Commentary

Why Shakespeare?

excerpt from program Why not tackle the best?  The students prove to themselves that they are up to the challenge.

Pedagogical Context and Materials

Document Description Commentary
article about Much Ado about Nothing

Our students received nice attention in the school newspaper.

Another article about Much Ado This article appeared in the Santa Barbara Newspress.  It was so important for our students, who previously felt “invisible.”
student work Towards the end of the semester, we had some fun writing “Lies Poetry” and sharing with the class.  I found the assignment sheet in a stack of papers left behind by a retired colleague
script we used for Comedy of Errors

Script we used for A Comedy of Errors-This adaptation worked well, even though most of it is in iambic pentameter.

Curriculum Paper assignment

The basic rules of the class.

freewrites to music I am so happy that Karla stayed with us.
one-act class notes

Actors from the one-acts production class came to see a preview.  Their laughter taught our actors so much about what was funny in their lines.           

Scene Summaries and production fliers English and Spanish versions of the scene summaries were done by students and a student teacher.  The flyer was done by student Erica Uriarte.
Script used for The Tempest

I usually splice together an adaptation with some material from Shakespeare’s unabridged text.

Index of Videos for COE

A more detailed look at our A Comedy of Errors rehearsal and production video.

dialogue written by student Maria Hernandez used her little sister as her intended audience.
Scene written by student

Based this scene on a scene from A Comedy of Errors          

character chart for performance

Character Chart for performance-Students create this flow chart for entrances and exits.  A real asset in casting actors for multiple roles, and for actors during rehearsals.

curtain call chart

Curtain Call- We posted the blocking for the curtain call so actors could see it before running onstage for their bows.

flyer for Much Ado About Nothing

Flyer for Much Ado-This flyer was designed by a student.

Monologue written by student

Monologue written by student Juana Fonseca-Juana focused on the feelings she had when visiting back in Mexico.

program for Much Ado About Nothing

Program for Much Ado-Students and a student teacher typed the program.

scene summaries for The Tempest

Scene summaries for The Tempest-This project helped audience members in the following the plot.  It also helped those with smaller roles to have more meaningful work and a more sizeable contribution to the project.

Vocabulary exercise

Vocabulary Exercise-These lists provide scaffolding for the students.  Student mentors review the definitions with their peers at the beginning of each class session early on.

Phil Levien's Acting Resume  
 
 


The work on this website includes ethnographic video documentation recorded by Richard Nardi and ChunXia Wang, and was supported in part by the Center for Teaching for Social Justice at U.C. Santa Barbara.

Site last updated February 21, 2006