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Sarah Dustagheer looks at the methods employed at the Globe Theatre to teach Shakespeare directly through performance.
A dusty old church hall, not a classroom, was where I learnt the most about Shakespeare. Here, at a local drama group, my teacher (an actor by profession) showed me that Shakespeare?s words were meant to be lifted off the page and played with on the stage. By thinking about Shakespeare?s plays through performance and by acting in them, I found that his language had the power to magically transform a dusty church hall into a magic island, an eerie castle and even a desolate sea coast. Conversely, at school, stuck behind a desk with my nose in a book, Shakespeare?s plays were not scripts to be explored but texts to be deciphered. The playfulness of performance was lost to the serious business of passing exams.

My experiences have led me to believe that exploring Shakespeare through performance and treating the plays as plays is a vital way of understanding the Bard. They have also led me to London?s Globe Theatre. A recreation of the space for which Shakespeare wrote cannot help but offer insights into how his plays were originally performed. I am currently studying for a Masters degree, run jointly by the Globe and King?s College London. The course encourages students to think about Shakespeare?s work with the full practical issues in mind, consulting actors, directors, designers, and voice and movement coaches. We explore the ways in which the physical space of the theatre affects the content of the plays. We also investigate the implications of producing the plays, from costumes to cosmetics, and from scenery to staging. Undoubtedly Shakespeare wrote with the same practical performance implications in mind. Renaissance theatre history shows Shakespeare to have been a man of the theatre ? not only a playwright, but also an actor, a shareholder in and the manager of the very theatre he wrote for.

As well as offering higher education courses, the Globe?s Education Department attempts to address the challenges of teaching Shakespeare in schools.

The situation in schools has improved since my days deciphering text in dusty textbooks, as the advice from www.teachernet.gov.uk, a website that promotes the government?s teaching standards, shows: ?the best teaching of Shakespeare contains? the examination of the plays as scripts for performance?. Yet this can be problematic in the restricted space of the classroom and when some teachers might not have the knowledge of how Shakespeare works in performance.

With this in mind, Globe Education offers schools workshops and activities that are aimed at the different Key Stages of the National Curriculum but that are keenly focused on the staging of Shakespeare?s plays. A staggering 75,000 students pass through the Globe?s doors onto its stage. Another 1,500 students are involved in off-site distance learning programmes and outreach projects. Patrick Spottiswoode, Director of Globe Education, sees the Globe?s work with students as a ?collaboration? with school teaching that emphasises the ?performance? and ?playfulness? of Shakespeare?s words. Not only does the Globe educate students about Shakespeare, but, through his plays, it also teaches them to explore their own imagination and creativity.

Some workshops are run by actors who recount their experience of constructing Shakespeare?s characters and, most importantly, of conveying them to an audience. Young people are given an opportunity to explore and emulate the actors? creative process. For example, one activity investigates the production of Shakespeare?s ?high? and ?low? status characters. The workshop group is encouraged to experiment through improvisation games to discover how the physical stance of a king can be different from that of a beggar. Another exercise involves thinking about Shakespeare?s plays from the viewpoint of four archetypal characters ? the warrior, the lover, the king and the magician. These archetypes each have their own emotional and physical attributes that actors can use as a basis for individual characters. In the workshop space, young people are given the opportunity to perform the different archetypes in the same way that actors would in the rehearsal process.

But workshop groups are also offered the opportunity to experience for themselves how Shakespeare?s words come alive on the Globe stage. Even young children are encouraged to start experimenting with Shakespeare?s language. Given lines to say on the Globe stage, the children begin to play with the rhythms and sounds of Shakespeare?s poetry and prose. Excited cries of ?All the world?s a stage? prove that Shakespeare?s words are very much alive for students of the Globe. Young people learn to work with the rhythm of Shakespeare?s verse ? iambic pentameter ? through physical action. One exercise has the students galloping around the workshop space saying a line each of Shakespeare?s verse. Through this active experience, they become aware of how close the rhythm of Shakespeare?s language is to the rhythm of their own heartbeat.

Globe Education has extended the communication between actors and young people through their interactive website Globe Link. Here, students can chart the progress of a professional using the ?Adopt an actor? scheme. They can witness exactly how the plays work in practice, from the actor?s initial rehearsals right through to the first performance. Shakespeare education should be about ?play? in every sense of the word.

Students should recognise Shakespeare?s work as plays that are meant to be acted, and an important way of doing this is by playing with Shakespeare?s language and characters. The Globe offers students and young people the opportunity to discover and experience for themselves that ?the play?s the thing?.

Sarah Dustagheer is studying for a Masters in Shakespeare Studies: Text and Playhouse, taught jointly at the Globe and King?s College, London. e: sarah_dustagheer@hotmail.com; w: http://www.shakespearesglobe.org