Event Registration

Description:

Read it! Act it! Students will enjoy this two-hour, weekly virtual workshop with Shakespearian coach Heather Sanderson, who hails from England, and is known for instilling a love of Shakespeare into the hearts of students at Compass and throughout the Greater DC area. The class will explore one of Shakespeare's historical tragedies and analyze its characters, plot, themes, and motives. Students will meet the elderly King Lear of Britain, his trio of daughters- Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia, noble Gloucester and his two sons in this dark tale of betrayal and loss which encompasses a poisoning, a suicide, an execution, a duel, an invasion, and the decline into insanity. The class will complete the featured play after approximately 10 weeks, so in the spirit of Lear, the remaining portion of the semester will examine other famous scenes of doom and despair in Shakespeare's works.

Students will read different roles, study and act out scenes, practice monologues, and work through the literature while having fun with fellow teens in a virtual setting. Theatre games adapted for online work, will be used to encourage collaboration, and specially designed improv exercises will be used to stretch teens' imaginations and help them get "in character". The class will use read-aloud and in-class dramatization to decipher the original language, word choices, and to identify humor, satire, mockery, betrayal, and rejection in this mixed-up tragic tale. The class will work from complete texts (not redacted, abridged, or simplified school versions) to hear and practice Elizabethan lingo. (How did someone of Shakespeare's time hurl insults or woe a woman?) Students will learn how the Bard crafted scenes and conveyed the primary storyline and sub-plots in a tragedy that has endured for over 400 years.

Instructor Heather Sanderson shares a teaching style based on actions and interactions, developed from years of experience coaching Shakespeare in a way that appeals to students. Her approach brings abstract concepts, complex themes, and difficult language to the students' level, so that they can relate to and appreciate Shakespeare.

Format: All class meetings will be in a virtual classroom, providing synchronous online instruction via videoconferencing for the full semester.

Topics in this Series: King Lear (Semester 1), The Tempest (Semester 2). Students continuing from first semester receive priority pre-registration for second semester.

Workload: Students should expect to spend 0-1 hour per week outside of class reading and memorizing sections.

Assignments: Sections will be assigned in class and included in the weekly e-mail to parents/students.

Assessments: Will not be given.

Textbook: The cost of the class text is included in the course fee.

Credit: Homeschool families may wish to count this course as a component (partial) credit in English Literature or Fine Arts for purposes of a high school transcript.