A Midsummer's Night Dream

A guide to reading, understanding, and performing Shakespeare's A midsummer night's dream.

Conceived and written by two classically trained American stage actors, this workbook in Smith & Kraus' Discovering Shakespeare Series is a student's gateway to understanding Shakespeare. The side-by-side presentation of the original language and a "translation" into the vernacular allows the student to quickly understand and appreciate the play. There is accompanying instruction about Shakespearean English, character analyses, and performance information.

VOYA

Introducing middle school students to Shakespeare might seem like a radical ideal until you read Olster and Hamilton's play workbooks in this Young Actors series. Each workbook follows a similar design. An abridged version of the Shakespearean play is juxtaposed with a vernacular or contemporary translation, detailed scene descriptions, and stage directions (set in parallel columns across double pages). The intention is that the vernacular version will serve as a bridge to reading and understanding Shakespeare's play by introducing children to the intricacies of plot and character through "everyday" language. Then students will be ready to tackle Shakespeare's own language, which, the authors insist, should always be used for performance. Introductory essays give background to the play: the manners or customs of Elizabethan times and the relationships between characters. After the text of the play, there are descriptions of theatrical conventions, how to get into character, and the rehearsal process. The abridgement simplifies the original play, while preserving the action and main meaning of the characters' speeches. The authors note that they "have taken some minor liberties with Shakespeare's text to accommodate our abridged version." In fact the abridgement is often sufficient for understanding the play. Still, their "vernacular version" of the play is useful in sorting out sentence structure and the vocabulary of the original. The authors' suggestion that students look up every word they don't know ought to be ignored; their better suggestion is to get the meaning through acting out the play. Students could use the workbook to get the meaning they need and then trust their own readings of Shakespeare's words. Teachers will find these books useful reference tools to paraphrase the plays or provide directions for acting scenes. Glossary. Biblio. Note: This review was written and published to address three titles: Discovering Shakespeare: A Midsummer's Night Dream: A Workbook for Students and Teachers, Discovering Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet: A Workbook for Students and Teachers and Discovering Shakespeare: The Taming of the Shrew: A Workbook for Students and Teachers.