WHAT IS A THEATRE-BASED APPROACH?
The RSC believes that good practice in the teaching of Shakespeare involves a theatre-based approach that treats Shakespeare's plays as dramatic texts. Working in this way brings Shakespeare's plays alive in the classroom and re-interprets the spirit and working practices of the rehearsal room for the benefit of the classroom.
For the RSC, using theatre-based methods in the Shakespeare classroom means:
- Exploring a range of interpretive choices, knowing that there is rarely a right or wrong choice as long as it can be justified by the text.
- Exploring a play physically and emotionally, as well as intellectually.
- Giving students the experience of getting a play 'up on its feet' - working through the staging problems that each scene presents practically.
- Encouraging experimentation.
- Asking open questions - the teachers is in the role of the director whose job it is not to tell the actor where to go, or how to read the lines but to employ the instincts of the actor to solve the questions in the text.
A classroom that effectively adopts theatre-based approaches to a Shakespeare text has some or all of the following characteristics:
- Teaching approaches are adapted to the needs and interests of each individual group of students.
- The most appropriate way in is found: this is rarely Act 1 Scene 1.
- Students are encouraged to take ownership of the text - to create an interpretation of the play that has relevance and meaning to them.
- Young people are actively involved in exploring the text - whether speaking the words aloud, finding physical expression for character and situation or in some instances, creating performance.
- These approaches are recognised and valued as integral to the learning process, not a luxury or add on - 'a bit of fun before the serious work begins'.
- The atmosphere is rigorous and purposeful. Active engagement is required: failure to engage is far easier to spot than when students are sitting behind desks, possibly hiding behind a text.
- Students work collaboratively in an atmosphere of trust.
- All students speak aloud Shakespeare's words in a variety of different ways.
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