Description
There hasn't been any other English playwright with anything like the influence of Shakespeare, and I happen to really like him. Students will read lots of his work, mostly plays and sonnets. This will be a course where we take Shakespeare seriously as a dramatist and theater maker, not just as a literary figure. Much of the class will look a lot like a theater class for that reason.
Materials
Any non-play reading material will be posted online. Students will have to find the plays for themselves. Don't worry too much about editions. If there's a passage where I want to make sure we are all looking at the exact same thing, I'll just print that out and bring it.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
The Tempest
Antony and Cleopatra
The Winter’s Tale
Hamlet
Twelfth Night: Or, What You Will
Macbeth
Othello
I highly recommend purchasing a collected works of Shakespeare that includes the sonnets. There are several good ones.