Theatre Bristol presents

William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream

Did You Know? All Theatre Bristol productions and workshops meet or exceed Virginia Standards of Learning and Tennessee State Educational Standards. For more information, please call.

Dear Educator,

Lovers chase each other through enchanted woods. The world gets turned upside down as fairies play tricks and change the very landscape of our dreams. Tradespeople rehearse plays, parents and children bicker and the magic and mystery of love is revealed. Such is the world of A Midsummer Night’s Dream!
We are very excited to be producing this most delightful of Shakespeare’s plays for you and your students. At Theatre Bristol we firmly believe that Shakespeare can and should be made accessible—and fun!—for today’s students. It is remarkable how immediate the language in this play seems 400 years after the words were written. It is remarkable too to see teenagers and young adults sitting on the edge of their seats as Shakespeare comes alive for them.
As you prepare for your visit, use the information, suggested activities and resources inside to unlock the world of Shakespeare for your students. We have included a broad base of materials to cover many subject areas and enhance your standard curriculum. As our partner in education, please feel free to adapt the information and activities to best suit the needs and abilities of your students. You are invited to make copies of this study guide for fellow teachers as well as your students.
Once again, thank you for choosing to make Theatre Bristol one of your field trip destinations for this year. We’ll see you at the theatre!

Sincerely,

Amy Neal Bussey
Director of Education

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

by William Shakespeare
adapted by Diane Timmerman

Directed by Pam Hurley

Show Dates & Times:
School Performances: March 5, 6, 7, 12, 13 & 14, 2003 at 9:30 and 11:30 am
Public Performances: March 7, 8, 9, 14, 15 & 16, 2003
All performances are at Theatre Bristol’s newly renovated ARTspace, 506 State Street.

This production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream uses only Shakespeare’s original language, respecting the verse and retaining all major characters and plotlines, while cutting the performance time to 90 minutes. Fancifully staged and fabulously costumed, this is Shakespeare as the bard intended it!

Internet Resources
Below is a listing of a few of the best or most interesting websites related to Shakespeare and his famous comedy. Keep in mind, this is only a sampling as there are more websites related to Shakespeare than could reasonably be catalogued anywhere. A great assignment to integrate technology into your classroom is to use some of these sites to do a Web quest. To get some guidance on this, or to use one already designed by someone else, simply go to your favorite search engine (I suggest google.com) and type in Shakespeare Web quest. You’ll have plenty to choose from!

http://www.shakespearehigh.com/
Shakespeare High! A wonderful site with divisions for students and teachers studying Shakespeare. Has divisions related to performance, resources, study guides, each of Shakespeare’s plays, Shakespeare in the news, and even a “cafeteria” where students can discuss whatever is on their mind Shakespeare related. A new site, it formerly was run under the “Surfing with the Bard” website below and many aspects of the site are still at the former address. Links are handy, however, and navigation is easy.

http://www.ulen.com/shakespeare/
“Surfing with the Bard”. Former site of “Shakespeare High” above. Most of the resources for teachers are still accessible through this URL.

http://www.allshakespeare.com/
Everything you need to know about Shakespeare, from biography, to timelines, to criticism, to movie classics, to enotes and study guides.

http://www.emory.edu/ENGLISH/classes/Shakespeare_Illustrated/MidsummerPaintings.html
An analysis of art through the last 400 years inspired by the play . Includes links to images of many famous paintings and more sites of interest.

http://www.ulen.com/shakespeare/plays/mnd/stoneman.html
DOS based study guide developed by David L Stoneman of Roanoke. VA. Free and downloadable.

http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/
Self described as “a complete annotated guide to the scholarly Shakespeare resources available on the internet”. Tons of links and information.

http://the-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/
Complete collection of on-line full text versions of the plays.

http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/lambtales/LTMND.HTM
Charles & Mary Lamb’s “Tales from Shakespeare” A very understandable and “plain English” version of the tale meant for younger readers. Good to use as a companion to the text for students who have difficulty with the Elizabethean language or as a pre-reading synopsis for any level.

http://www.rdg.ac.uk/globe/
This site is “dedicated to providing background information on Shakespearean performance in original conditions. Centered around the construction of a replica of the Globe playhouse in London, it includes pages devoted to the original Globe and other playhouses in Early Modern London, reports and photographic documentaries on reconstruction and performances at the New Globe, and also some practical information”.

http://www.shakespeares-globe.org/
“A resource dedicated to the exploration of Shakespeare's work, and the playhouse for which he wrote, through the connected means of education and performance”. Lots of links.

http://www.ishakespeare.com/index.htm
Shenandoah Shakespeare. A Shakespeare company based out of Staunton, Virginia (just a few hours up the road!) their motto is “We do it with the lights on!”. They were founded with the idea to produce Shakespeare’s plays as they would have been in the bard’s time—with the house lights on, contemporary music and clothing, brisk pace, no intermission and actors and audience in close relationship. Their newly finished performance venue, The Blackfriars Playhouse, is a faithful recreation of Shakespeare’s theatre by the same name. Also under construction in their complex is a recreation of the 1613 London Globe Theatre.

A Brief Biography
William Shakespeare was born to John Shakespeare and mother Mary Arden some time in late April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. There is no record of his birth, but his baptism was recorded by the church, thus his birthday is assumed to be the 23 of April. His father was a prominent and prosperous alderman in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, and was later granted a coat of arms by the College of Heralds. All that is known of Shakespeare's youth is that he presumably attended the Stratford Grammar School, and did not proceed to Oxford or Cambridge. The next record we have of him is his marriage to Anne Hathaway in 1582. The next year she bore a daughter for him, Susanna, followed by the twins Judith and Hamnet two years later.

Seven years later Shakespeare is recognized as an actor, poet and playwright, when a rival playwright, Robert Greene, refers to him as "an upstart crow" in A Groatsworth of Wit. A few years later he joined up with one of the most successful acting troupe's in London: The Lord Chamberlain's Men. When, in 1599, the troupe lost the lease of the theatre where they performed, (appropriately called The Theatre) they were wealthy enough to build their own theatre across the Thames, south of London, which they called "The Globe." The new theatre opened in July of 1599, built from the timbers of The Theatre, with the motto "Totus mundus agit histrionem" (A whole world of players) When James I came to the throne (1603) the troupe was designated by the new king as the King's Men (or King's Company). The Letters Patent of the company specifically charged Shakespeare and eight others "freely to use and exercise the art and faculty of playing Comedies, Tragedies, Histories, Inerludes, Morals, Pastorals, stage plays ... as well for recreation of our loving subjects as for our solace and pleasure."

Shakespeare entertained the king and the people for another ten years until June 19, 1613, when a canon fired from the roof of the theatre for a gala performance of Henry VIII set fire to the thatch roof and burned the theatre to the ground. The audience ignored the smoke from the roof at first, being to absorbed in the play, until the flames caught the walls and the fabric of the curtains. Amazingly there were no casualties, and the next spring the company had the theatre "new builded in a far fairer manner than before." Although Shakespeare invested in the rebuilding, he retired from the stage to the Great House of New Place in Stratford that he had purchased in 1597, and some considerable land holdings ,where he continued to write until his death in 1616 on the day of his 52nd birthday.

Shakespeare Timeline
»1564 April 26: Entry in the baptismal register of Stratford parish church reads: "Gulielmus filius Johannis Shakspere"

»1582 November 27: Bishop of Worcester's register shows Wm. Shaxpere granted a license to marry Anne Whateley.
28 November: The same register records a marriage bond issued to William Shagspere and Anne Hathwey.

»1583 May 26: Daughter Susanna Shakspere is baptised in Stratford church.

»1585 February 2: Hamnet and Judtih, twins, are baptized in Stratford church.

»1589 William Shakespeare's name appears in a legal document along with his parents against a neighbour over a land dispute.

»1595 March 15: Shakespeare, along with two other actors, receives payment from the Treasurer of the Royal Chamber for "two comedies or interludes" played before the queen several months earlier. He is now presumably in London.

»1596 August 11: Hamnet Shakspere dies at age 11.
29 November: A Mr. William Wayte, files a legal document against Shakspere and three others for "fear of death."

»1597 May 4: Shakspere buys a mansion with gardens in Stratford for 60 pounds. It is the second largest house in Stratford.

»1598 Shakespeare's name heads the list of principal actors in a production of Ben Jonson's "Every Man in his Humour." In this year, Shakespeare's name begins appearing on the title pages of many plays.

»1599 The newly built Globe Theater is recorded as having as tenants "Richard Burbage and William Shackespeare, Gent." Shakspere holds interest in the Theater to at least 1611.

»1601 May 1: Shakspere pays 320 pounds for 107 acres of arable land on the common pasture near Stratford. He also buys a cottage across from his house.

»1603 May 19: A Royal Patent is given to nine actors and their associates, among them William Shakespeare, which authorizes them to perform plays at the Globe Theatre. Shakespeare's name appears on the list of principal comedians in another of Jonson's plays.

»1604 March 15: Nine players, including Shakespeare, are given red cloth by the Great Wardrobe, to make liveries for participating in the coronation procession of King James.

»1604 The production of Shakespeare's plays are at their height, however, Shakspeare appears to be chiefly in Stratford from this date on.

»1608 Shakespeare sues for a debt of six pounds against a John Addenbroke.
19 October: Shakespeare takes a one-seventh share of Blackfriars Theater.

»1610 Shakespeare buys 20 acres of land near Stratford.

»1616 25 January: After revisions, Shakespeare's will is signed by him in three places. It leaves most of his estate to his elder daughter, Susanna. The will gives his "second-best" bed to his wife.
23 April: Shakespeare dies, and is buried two days later in Stratford. His name does not appear on the stone over his grave.

His supposed tombstone, preserved to this day reads:
Good friend for Iesus Sake forbeare
To digg the dust encloased heare:
Blest be ye man yt spares thes stones
And curst be he yet moves my bones.

Additional Reading & Research A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Biographical
Wells, Stanley W. Shakespeare: For All Time. Oxford University Press, 2003.
Kay, Dennis. Shakespeare. New York: William Morrow, Inc., 1992.
Levi, Peter. The Life and Times of William Shakespeare. London: Macmillan, 1988.

Of Special Interest to Teachers
Epstein, Norrie. The Friendly Shakespeare: A Thoroughly Painless Guide to the Best of the Bard. Penguin, USA, 1994.
Aagesen, Colleen and Margie Blumberg. Shakespeare for Kids: His Life and Times: 21 Activities. Chicago Review Press, 1999. (More geared to Middle School than High School)
Egan, Lorraine Hopping and L.O. Egan. Teaching Shakespeare: Yes, You Can! (Grades 5& up). Scholastic, 1999.
Foster, Cass, et al. Shakespeare: To Teach or Not to Teach: Teaching Shakespeare Made Fun: From Elementary to High School. Five Star Publishing, 1992.
O’Brien, Peggy. Shakespeare Set Free: Teaching Romeo and Juliet: Macbeth: A Midsummer Night's Dream. Washington Square Press, 1993.
Swope, John Wilson. Ready-To-Use Activities for Teaching a Midsummer Night's Dream (Shakespeare Teacher's Activities Library). Center for Applied Research in Education, 1996.

Criticism and Theory
Bloom, Harold. William Shakespeare's a Midsummer Night's Dream. Chelsea House Publishing, 1999.
Briggs, Katharine M. The Anatomy of Puck. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1959.
Kehler, Dorothea (editor). A Midsummer Night's Dream: Critical Essays. New York: Garland, 2001.
Nevo, Ruth. Comic Transformations in Shakespeare. New York: Routledge, Chapman & Hall, 1981.
Rhoades, Duane. Shakespeare's Defense of Poetry: "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "The Tempest". Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1986.
Young, David. Something of Great Constancy: The Art of "A Midsummer Night's Dream". New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1966. \

Miscellaneous
Malless, Stanley. Coined by Shakespeare: Words and Meanings First Used by the Bard. Merriam-Webster, 1998.
Miner, Margaret and Hugh N. Rawson. A Dictionary of Quotations from Shakespeare: A Topical Guide to over 3,000 Great Passages from the Plays, Sonnets, and Narrative Poems
E.P. Dutton, 1992
Linklater, Kristen. Freeing Shakespeare's Voice: The Actor's Guide to Talking the Text. Theatre Communications Group, 1992.
Dessen, Alan C. A Dictionary of Stage Directions in English Drama 1580-1642. Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Status Games
Objective: To allow students to explore status in relationships.
Materials: Slips of paper numbered 1-4
Activities:
Initial Format:

Four students are each given a slip of paper with a number (1, 2, 3 and 4) which they are to keep as their status number. They are not to tell anyone else their number. They are then given a situation in which the group must make a consensus decision, such as choosing a movie to see or video to rent, planning the menu for a party, or selecting one of the group to run for class office. In pursuing the objective, each member of the group is to maintain his or her own status number and to determine the status number of the others, without asking or divulging. In playing their status the numbers work as following:

Always in charge.
Participates in leadership, but defers to #1. May offer mediation.
Offers suggestions, but not leadership, and defers to #1 and #2.
May offer suggestions, but always defers to rest of group.
After the scene is played, ask each player to identify what the status numbers of the others were before divulging their own. Ask audience members if they concur or differ in their perceptions of the status chain of command that they observed.
Variation/Progression:

Four students are each told to secretly choose their own status number. Then they are given a scene situation in which the group must make a consensus decision, as suggested above. In pursuing the objective, each member of the group is to maintain his or her own status number and to determine the status number of the others, without asking or divulging. After the scene is played, ask the audience to identify what they perceived as the status chain of command. Then ask each player to identify how they perceived the status of their scene partners before divulging their own.
Analysis:

The Initial Format tends to provide a clear status chain and, once status of each member has been established, a fairly smooth achievement of the group objective. The Variation Format may also provide a clear status chain if there is a 1, 2, 3, and 4 in the group. However, interesting conflicts and impasses may arise if there is more than one #1 or there may be a comic "spinning of wheels" if no one has chosen to take on the #1 status.
Text Applications:

Excellent examples of scenes involving status are the opening court and mechanical scenes in A Midsummer Night's Dream. In the court scene, Duke Theseus is a definite #1 and Egeus a feisty #2. Is Hermia a #3? Who are the #4s? Does Helena change from a self-abasing #4 in her scene with Hermia and Lysander to a #1 or 2 in her monologue at the end of the scene? In the mechanical scene, Bottom, an amateur actor, insists on being in the #1 status position, leaving Peter Quince to take the #2 status position if he wants to keep the scene moving forward (despite his role as Director). Watch Peter Quince attempt to establish his #1 status and then shift to #2. While Francis Flute plays at #3, Snug the Joiner, along with Robin Starveling and Snout are clearly #4s.

Detective Story
GOALS: To develop students' attention to the factual details of a scene, and to involve their senses in their response to the scene.

CLASS TIME NEEDED: Ten to fifteen minutes, depending upon the length and complexity of the scene.

STEP-BY-STEP DESCRIPTION:
Roles are assigned, and students read through a given scene (Midsummer, I,1).
All the other students act as detectives, seeking the facts revealed in the scene (e.g., time of month, upcoming wedding, disagreement over mates, etc.).
After the facts have been gathered, read the scene again, with students supplying sound effects, if applicable.
POINTS FOR OBSERVATION, DISCUSSION: The facts of a scene are often missed by students, and their sense of "what is happening" in a scene is then weak. This is a good exercise in close reading, and involves the class as a whole.

Suggested Essay& Study Questions
1. Though Bottom often steals the show in performance, Puck is usually considered the most important character in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Comparing Puck to Bottom, why might Puck be considered the protagonist? In what way does Puck's spirit dominate the mood of the play? In what ways does the comedy surrounding Puck differ from that surrounding Bottom?

2. Compare and contrast the Athenian lovers with the craftsmen. In what ways are the makeup of the two groups different from each other? Are they the same in any way?

3. What role do Theseus and Hippolyta play in A Midsummer Night's Dream? What is the significance of the fact that they are absent from the play's main action?

4. It has been argued that the characters of the Athenian lovers are not particularly differentiated from one another—that Hermia is quite like Helena (even down to her name) and that Demetrius resembles Lysander. Do you think that this is the case, or do you think that the lovers emerge as individuals? If you believe that these characters are quite similar to one another, what do you think Shakespeare's intent was in making them so?

5. Discuss the role of the play-within-a-play in Act V of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Does the Pyramus and Thisbe story have any relevance to the main story, or is it simply a comical interlude? What effect does the craftsmen's production of their play have on the tone of A Midsummer Night's Dream as a whole?

6. There are lots of references to dreams and visions in this play. Discuss the significance of this. Who dreams or has visions? What different types of dreams and visions are found in the play? What are some attitudes about dreams and visions that are exhibited in the text?

Theatre Bristol is a not –for-profit cultural and educational organization whose activities are made possible in part by generous financial support from the National Endowment for the Arts; Tennessee Arts Commission; Virginia Commission for the Arts; and corporations, foundations and individuals from throughout the region. Theatre Bristol is a 501 © (3) organization and all contributions are tax-deductible.

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