Two years ago, when we were reading King Lear with another family, I searched high and low for some paper dolls or paper puppets we could use to keep our characters straight as we read the play aloud. I never found quite what I was looking for.
My daughter has always loved drawing and painting. She started working on a set of people. She came to me one morning to announce that she had created a Shakespeare resource for families who might like to “act out” their Shakespeare as they read it. That gave her the idea to rework Shakespeare’s original play to include only the parts that were in the Lamb’s retellings we’d previously read and have puppets for each of those parts. Her adapted play is not to replace reading the actual Shakespeare play, but to allow co-ops or families to put on a shortened version that keeps the main story intact.
Hence Act It Out Shakespeare came to be. My 12 year old’s entrepreneurial idea. Currently, The Tempest is available for purchase. Complete with 11 puppets to cut out and glue to popsicle sticks (if desired), a play, and a lit of characters per scene so you can easily assign roles without going through the entire play.
Next, she is working on A Midsummer’s Night Dream and Much Ado About Nothing. Leave her comment to let her know which plays you will be doing this school year and she will add them to her running list.
When will A Midsummer Night’s Dream be available for download? We are starting that play this year.
Hi Amy, It will be ready by August 1st.
Thanks for your patience. A Midsummer Night’s Dream should be ready tomorrow evening.
When will Much Ado About Nothing be available?
Did you know there is a delightful performance with an all black cast on PBS? I watched it before I knew anything about the story. It made me want to read it!
Link to the performance: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/much-ado-about-nothing-full-episode/10194/
PBS has a series called Shakespeare Uncovered which provides a lot of background info for each play. Probably best as a parent resource, depending on the subject matter.
Link to the show: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/shakespeare-uncovered/
Thank you for sharing those resources! I look forward to checking them out. Nadia just is finishing up A Midsummer’s Night Dream and putting that up in the shop tomorrow. Much Ado About Nothing is next and will probably be ready by the end of the month.