1. AIM: HOW DO WE REVIEW SHAKESPEAREAN STAGING. Do Now: Review: Define Iambic Pentameter And Rhyming Couples

2. ACTIVITY  Iambic Pentameter “You WON’T GO till I NET up a FISH for YOU.” (unmetered verse) “you GO not TILL i NET you UP a FISH.” “Neither a borrower nor a lender be.”  Activity: Create 2 metered lines of iambic pentameter on your own.

3. Rhyming Couplets  Shakespeare uses rhyming couplets to mark the end of major dramatic points. In Macbeth, a rhyming couplet ends the first scene: “Fair is foul, and foul is fair. / Hover through the fog and filthy air.”  Ask students to locate additional rhyming couplets in Act 1. The opening scene of Macbeth is replete with rhyming couplets.

4. STAGING  First of all, the plays took place during the day (electric lights had not been invented yet!). The theater itself was also a fairly new idea.  The stage was constructed on a raised platform in an open field and surrounded by galleries.  Those who could not afford “seats” instead crowded on the floor near the stage. These people were called “groundlings.” A roof called “The Heavens” covered the stage itself.

5. STAGING  There were very few props used in Shakespeare’s plays, save for a few tables and chairs. In what we might now call the “wings,” there were small inner stages with draperies and raised balconies where actors changed their clothes . Their costumes were based on the popular styles of the time— not on the historical period in which the play was set.  The actors: All performances were conducted by three or four professional troupes. Men played all the parts. Young boys played young girls.

6. THE GLOBE THEATER