gives students and teachers a chance to get up on their feet and act out a Shakespeare play in half an hour, using his language. The emphasis is on key scenes, with narrative bridges between scenes to keep the audience caught up on the action. The stage directions are built into this script so that young actors do not have to stand in one place; they can move and tell the story with their actions as well as their words. And it can all be done in a classroom during class time!
That is where this book was born: not in a research library, a graduate school lecture, a professional stage, or even an after-school drama club. All of the play cuttings in The 30-Minute Shakespeare were first rehearsed in a D.C. public high school English class, and performed successfully at the Folger Shakespeare Library’s annual Secondary School Shakespeare Festival. The players were not necessarily “actor types.” For many of them, this was their first performance in a play.
Something almost miraculous happens when students perform Shakespeare. They “get” it. By occupying the characters and speaking the words out loud, students gain a level of understanding and appreciation that is unachievable by simply reading the text. That is the magic of a performance-based method of learning Shakespeare, and this book makes the formerly daunting task of staging a Shakespeare play possible for anybody.
With The 30-Minute Shakespeare book series I hope to help teachers and students produce a Shakespeare play in a short amount of time, thus jump-starting the process of discovering the beauty, magic, and fun of the Bard. Plot, theme, and language reveal themselves through the performance of these half-hour play cuttings, and everybody involved receives the priceless gift of “owning” a piece of Shakespeare. The result is an experience that is fun and engaging, and one that we can all carry with us as we play out our own lives on the stages of the world.
NICK NEWLIN
Brandywine, MDMarch 2010
CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY
The following is a list of characters that appear in this cutting of Julius Caesar.
For the full breakdown of characters, see Sample Program.
SOOTHSAYER
CHORUS
JULIUS CAESAR: A great Roman general
CALPURNIA: Caesar’s wife
ANTONY: A loyal friend of Caesar
BRUTUS: A high ranking nobleman
PORTIA: Brutus’s wife
CINNA THE POET
GHOST OF CAESAR
PINDARUS: Slave to Cassius
NARRATOR
A public place.
Enter NARRATOR from stage rear, coming downstage center. Enter CHORUS from stage right and stage left, making a “V” shape behind NARRATOR.
NARRATOR
A soothsayer warns Caesar of a dangerous day for him. Cassius is afraid that Caesar will become king and urges Brutus to oppose him. An ill wind blows. (CHORUS wave arms to emulate wind.)
Exit NARRATOR stage left.
Enter SOOTHSAYER from stage left, blindly feeling his way forward. Enter CINNA THE POET from stage left to guide SOOTHSAYER to CHORUS at center stage.
Enter JULIUS CAESAR, ANTONY, CALPURNIA, PORTIA, DECIUS BRUTUS, BRUTUS, CASSIUS, CASCA, TREBONIUS, and METELLUS CIMBER from stage right.
At CAESAR’S entrance, CHORUS hum flourish.
CAESAR
Calpurnia!
CASCA (silencing crowd with a wave of his hand)
Peace, ho! Caesar speaks.
CAESAR (gesturing)
Calpurnia!
CALPURNIA
Here, my lord.
CAESAR
Antonius!
ANTONY
Caesar, my lord?
SOOTHSAYER
Caesar!
Beware the ides of March.
(louder and with more intensity) Beware the ides of March.
CAESAR
He is a dreamer; let us leave him: pass.
Exit ALL stage left except BRUTUS and CASSIUS.
STAGE RIGHT CHORUS hum flourish.
STAGE LEFT CHORUS (shouting)
Hail Caesar!
BRUTUS
What means this shouting? I do fear, the people Choose Caesar for their king.
CASSIUS
Ay, do you fear it?
Then must I think you would not have it so.
BRUTUS
What is it that you would impart to me?
CASSIUS
I was born free as Caesar; so were you:
We both have fed as well, and we can both
Endure the winter’s cold as well as he:
And this man
Is now become a god.
STAGE RIGHT CHORUS (shouting)
Hail
