Instructor: David Morden
Fri | 10:00 - 10:50 AM | In-Person
Fall 2024
Shakespeare wrote for a very specific society within a relatively short span of history (both British and world). And even though Elizabethan England would seem like a completely foreign world to us in the 21st century, his plays deal with the human condition in a way that is often surprising, timely, profound, funny and sometimes even obscene. In this course, we will explore four of Shakespeare’s plays: a comedy, a tragedy, a ‘problem play’ and a romance (specifically, Twelfth Night, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing and Pericles). Using these four stories, we will ask what relevance Shakespeare has for the modern world. We will analyze the framework in which he wrote his plays, explore the scripts from an artist’s point of view, weigh the critical issues contained within each play and debate the lessons imparted. Underlying all our explorations will be discussions of the society in which Shakespeare wrote – imperialistic, racist and misogynist – and how we deal with those issues in modern performance. Should we continue to produce Shakespeare theatre in the 21st century? You can decide for yourself by the end of this course.