Introduction; Using this book; The organisation and content of the eight chapters; Developing the use of drama to teach Shakespeare; The teacher's autonomy; ; Section 1. Active Teaching; ; 1. Why use active methods to teach the plays?; The North Face of Shakespeare; The problem of monumentalism; The teacher repositioned; 'Shakespeare shared'; Starting active work; Drama workshops; The learner and the text at the centre; Active Shakespeare and independent learning; Back to the art of teaching - and student achievement; ; 2. Practical work and drama workshops; The classroom as stage; Activities in conventional teaching sessions; Safety; Physical and emotional; Different needs and abilities; Workshop practices; Workshop objectives and the use of warm-ups and preparation exercises; Workshop planning an example of a language workshop - 'Macbeth's soliloquies'; The origins of the workshop activities in the following chapters; ; Section 2. Activities for Teaching Shakespeare's Plays; ; 3. Group formation activities; Group formation; Getting started; ; 4. Drama games; Using games in the Shakespeare workshop; ; 5. Drama exercises; Using drama exercises in the Shakespeare workshop; ; 6. Shakespeare's language; The aims of language work; Shakespeare's language gives 'the motive and the cue' for action; Discourse and rhetoric as sources of dramatic energy and action; Language ownership and familiarity through workshops; Teaching approaches; Listen and speak; Active reading; Learn and act; ; 7. Narrative in Shakespeare; Harnessing the power of narrative's theatricality; The nature of Shakespeare's narratives; Teaching approaches; Structural approaches; Dynamic approaches; Investigative approaches; ; 8. Character in Shakespeare; Changing ideas about character in drama; Characters and their speech utterances; Role differentiated from character; Character and setting; Mise en scene; ; Teaching approaches; Personal encounters with roles; Roles in social settings; Roles in action in the narrative; ; Notes; References; Index

"When it comes to suggestions for classroom activities, the Cambridge editions far excel their ...counterparts" "Immeasurably superior to the 'bilingual' editions with Shakespeare's words on one page and a 'translation' opposite." Ken Watson, English In Australia, Vol 42 No 1 (2007) pg 72