Tag Archives: kids

Crystal Ball for Caesar – Magic 8-ball!

By | | ,
Leave a comment
magic 8-ball

So, I always have fun and do my best to work the laughs for the audience in my melodramatic Shakespeare for Kids plays.  That’s certainly true with my performance of Julius Caesar for Kids! I used one specific prop to get some laughs. The Magic 8 Ball! (find it here on Amazon) That’s right, the soothsayer came out to warn Caesar about the “Ides of March” and then pulled out the Magic 8-ball to prove it so! The audience loved it, and, more importantly, the kids loved using it! Fun for all!

Enjoy! Continue reading →

Why Shakespeare Tragedies are funnier than Comedies

By | | ,
Leave a comment
Tragedies simplified

Ok, this is a short little post about a great little document that I found. Full credit to Cam Magee, and he summarizes this best: Everybody dies.  And THAT is why tragedies are funnier than comedies, when performed by kids melodramatically!  From the data I have collected (watching kids perform) ALL kids LOVE to die on stage! Especially, if it’s melodramatic… if they can get a laugh from the audience, the kids are all into it.  That’s part of the secret of my books, they’re fun to perform! Nothing like the end of Hamlet where there are several dead bodies … Continue reading →

Shakespeare Word Challenge

By | | ,
1 Comment
Shakespeare word challenge

Thanks to mentalfloss.com, for helping us see another list of 20 words we wouldn’t be able to iterate today without the help of The Bard. Words such as assassination, bedazzled, cold–blooded, fashionable, scuffle, swagger, and more… It’s amazing what this guy brought to the table.

So, because of this, I thought of the Shakespeare Word Challenge for your kids: In your classroom, challenge your kids to come up with 10 words or phrases that Shakespeare created or first penned and then have them use them in a sentence. What this will do is help them realize that his “language” is not … Continue reading →

Violence, Kids, and Shakespeare – It’s all good…

By | |
Comments Off on Violence, Kids, and Shakespeare – It’s all good…

I was chatting with another mom the other day about telling bedtime stories to kids. Her five-year-old son had asked her to tell him a story about knights with swords. Before she knew it, she found she was telling him the story of Hamlet. She went on to describe the panic she felt when she realized that there was a lot about Hamlet that maybe wasn’t so child-friendly. Infidelity? Check. Insanity? Check. Fighting, poison, murder? Check. Check. Check. So, that raises the question: how appropriate are Shakespeare’s plays for kids, anyway?

If you’ve ever taught our plays, you’ll notice … Continue reading →

Shakespeare Insult Generator

By | |
1 Comment

Well hello my fellow Shakespearean insulters, or, dare I say, you bawdy, ill-breeding, maggot pies!  Just to let you know the most requested page that I get on this website is for the Shakespeare Insult Generator.  I love this for several reasons; the main one is because the Shakespeare Insult Generator is the best and fastest way for kids to engage with Shakespeare.  Another reason is that this is just plain simple fun, regardless if you’re a kid or an adult. And thirdly (if that’s even a word) who doesn’t like to engage in fun, … Continue reading →