Final Point 3

Choose a combination of play and audience.  Explain what excites you about this combination and offer some preliminary ideas about what you hope to do with your edition.

Macbeth targeted to high school students

- Purpose: share interesting things that would get students excited about Shakespeare (and English literature in general)

Examples: 

- share background on Shakespeare’s life, but not too in depth (think Macbeth’s beginning without giving a one-sided view)

- have a section in the back dedicated to talking about what other people have written about Macbeth, and talk about how different play adaptations work and stuff (don’t include the actual sources, just quote from the sources

           - I love how our edition seems to be so focused on general high school students, and how I believe it will get those students excited about not only reading Shakespeare but performing it. I want to focus a lot on the different ways the different characters were performed, so that the students have a better way of imagining in their heads how the play pans out. Also, it’s great to give them such a knowledge of the performances, because then in drama class they have more to work with when deciding to actually perform one of Shakespeare’s plays. This edition would be geared towards having them perform this exact play.

- background information to Shakespeare and historical information of the time period (similar to the pelican version).

- Movie and plays adaptations

            - look up major play and movies that would get students excited to watch a production; go through a few different performances and the different ways people have performed the characters.

- how Macbeth would have been performed

- Gender roles during the time (focusing on Lady Macbeth). I love this one, because it would help to generate deeper discussions on political/social issues not only of their time but of ours, as well. This is a good basis for great in-class discussions that teachers would love to have. If it’s displayed in an interesting, fun way, and not just in long scholarly articles (for example, written in an informal tone), the students (I think) would be able to have fun with it and be able to be completely involved in the conversation.