MPL “family read-along” night
My most infamous middle school moment came while we were reading Shakespeare. Richard III, 8th grade. I didn’t get in to it. It was just so dreary and boring. Every day we read it felt like somebody was dropping an anvil on my balls. From an airplane. Or maybe from space. At the end of the play, our teacher asked us what I though. “Shakespeare should be shot,” I told her. If she ever wrote a book, she promised me, I’d be in it for saying that.
When I came home today, I found out that The Kid had drawn “family read-along” as his next book type in the MPL summer reading program. Stephanie and the kid were pitching me really hard for reading A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which, given my previous experience, I was skeptical of.
Stephanie has been telling us for years now how much fun reading Shakespeare aloud is. I trust her (and I was outvoted), so we gave it a shot.
It was great!
Getting in to the characters, doing the voices, and periodically getting quick story or history explainer from somebody who studied as much was a ton of fun. We read the first act tonight. Stephanie read Hippolyta, The Kid read Egeus and I read Theseus, and we divvied the rest of the parts up as we got to them. It was tremendous fun! It’s astounding to me that something I hated quite so much growing up quite be quite so much fun with the proper crowd and the proper attitude. I can’t wait to read the other four acts.
My only question at this point: is doing Bottom as William Shatner over the top? Perhaps so.
July 6th, 2007 at 9:36 pm
Richard III may not be the best choice of books for 8th grade. A lot of the interesting aspects of it are of a more adult nature. Merchant of Venice is better 8th grade material, besides it’s important to get that anti-semitism started early. ;-)
Seriously though, a lot of Shakespeare’s works really are more interesting once you are a tad bit older and can appreciate them (Midsummer Night’s Dream is the whimsical exception that it tends to be a favourite for children’s theatre). Still, it’s fantastic that you guys are doing this with The Kid, as I’m sure it is 10x more fun than reading it at school.
July 6th, 2007 at 9:37 pm
Oh, and to answer your question. doing anything as William Shatner is by definition over the top. The proper question is, is it too over the top. In this case, perhaps not.
July 7th, 2007 at 8:37 am
Exciting! My buddies and I did something similar back in HS with Shakespeare and other plays (Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex). Made it much more interesting to get through the reading, and actually gave us a better understanding of the content I think.
Additionally, it made us the uber geeks we are today. And that’s what every kid wants to be, I think.