Teaching Midsummer Night's Dream

[byucougs]

I am beginning a unit on Midsummer Night's Dream for 8th graders, and I wanted to know if anyone has suggestions, or past experiences with this or any other Shakespeare play that I may use. Also, if you have insight on this play, share those as well.

Thanks!

[Schokokeks]

Hi byucougs!

I have been playing theatre for 6 years now, and last summer we performed A Midsummer Night's Dream and I absolutely loved it! We adapted it into the atmosphere of New York City in the Thirties, and I think the play enormously benefited from this shifting into a more "modern" time.
Another Shakespearean we did was MacBeth, which was also put into "nowadays" by converting MacBeth into a Chicago businessman driven to absolute success by his manic wife.

Good luck for your unit! It would be nice if you posted down here what you finally decided to be your approach to Shakespeare, as I'm also very interested in teaching literature!

[Pensive]

I read it two years ago for school but it was an abridged version. I hated it very much.

[The Unnamable]

The play divides neatly into three camps – the Fairy World, The Athenians and the Mechanicals. This makes getting the students to work in groups very easy. I used an abridged (Shakespeare’s language but lots cut out) version with an 8th grade class a few years ago. If you don’t have a readily available shortened version, just omit bits. Be ruthless.

The Pyramus and Thisbe performance by the Mechanicals went down a storm. They improvised with available materials to produce an awe-inspiring lion (they used strips of yellow paper curled up and stuck on to a hair band for a stunning mane.). The student chosen to play the lion was the smallest in the class and Quince (the tallest) was an officious, bespectacled and well-meaning fool who appeared to have been modelled on the Head Master at the time. They used a toy dog on wheels for their dog and Wall was someone wearing a sandwich board on which they had painted brickwork. It was wonderfully amateurish, which is perfect of course for the Mechanicals’ performance. The Fairies were no less spectacular in their use of homemade costumes, although Puck stood out as the endearingly malevolent little imp he is. He was made up like Gene Simmons from Kiss. Both this group and the group playing the Athenian lovers played up the ludicrous behaviour of people in love. They did it almost as farce. I’m not sure they got from the play what those studying it at pre-university level did but I am sure they had almost as good a time as I did.

[byucougs]

I thought I would give a report on my class. They really got into the play. They read the whole unabridged edition and enjoyed it. I had them take scenes from the play and translate them into modern English and then perform them in front of class. They really enjoyed that activity.
Most followed the plot and laughed at all the right parts. I think it was a success.

[Schokokeks]

sounds very good!
I remember we read Shakespeare last year, Much Ado About Nothing it was, and most people never got the puns , but then again, the teacher was not very talented herself and only a small minority was actually following what was going on in class...
Congratulations that you seem to have lit a spark!