New course offers students ‘the Shakespeare experience’

The Performing and Visual Arts (PVA) Department is offering students a chance to travel to London this June to see the plays of William Shakespeare and visit the sites that saw them come to life in the 16th Century.

Six students have already signed up for the course.

The plays are from different genres penned by the famous bard, including history, tragedy and comedy.

"Daily round table discussions and writing assignments are expected to provoke new thinking and understanding; the choice of final projects is designed to engage students imagination and connections to their own cultural backgrounds," says Mark Coach Mineart, associate professor of theater.

Mineart will travel with the first 20 students to register. If more students sign up, professor Jeanne Arnold, another one of the organizing teachers will accompany them.

Part of the course requirements will include reading three of Shakespeare's plays and two resource texts about the author.

"We want to expose the students to a professional level experience and help them gain knowledge of Shakespeare's plays in contemporary and Elizabethan London," says Arnold.

Students will visit are the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, the New Globe Theatre, the British Museum, Shakespeare's birth home in Stratford-Upon-Avon, his grave site and Warwick Castle.

During the discussions of the historical sites there will be particular emphasis on the English King Richard the Third and the Tower of London, both of which were featured in one of Shakespeare's plays.

Arnold says that watching the plays and visiting the sites that helped to shape them is effective because it "places the plays within their historical contexts."

The course includes acting workshops with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the New Globe Theatre. Students will also be given some time to explore London on their own and see any more plays they desire.

Students will be required to maintain a daily journal, which will be graded based on their writing. The students will be given prompts about the plays.

"London is the theater capital of Europe and the course will bring us in direct contact with a diverse sampling of plays produced at the highest level of professional excellence," says Mineart.

Student registration for the course depends on GPA, whether the student is interested in Shakespeare and theater, and their performance in a transcript test on the plays.

The course runs from June 10 to 28. The students will meet on campus for three days for "an intensive seminar with discussions of plays", spend ten days in London and the remaining five days are for working on final projects, according to the syllabus.