Oz teachers ‘act out text’ to teach Shakespeare

MELBOURNE - Teachers from around Australia have joined a workshop at Melbourne University with a senior member of the Royal Shakespeare Company on how to spark students’ interest in William Shakespeare’s plays and other complex texts.

Virginia Grainger, from the renowned theatre company, recommended 23 English and drama teachers to encourage students to act out the text while reading it.

“It was Hamlet who said: ‘Suit the action to the word and the word to the action’. The language is so symbolic, it’s very easy to apply movement,” The Age quoted Grainger as saying.

Participating teachers were said to have worked their bodies through parts of The Tempest while listening to the voice of Kate Bush.

Professor John O’Toole, chairman of arts education at the university’s Graduate School of Education, said: “The problem is that often their first encounter isn’t going to a play, it’s reading old texts on a page. We want to show that it’s possible - teachers don’t have to be frightened of getting kids on their feet.” (ANI)