Taking the Ache out of Shakespeare: The Experience of Teaching Shakespeare's Plays Through Performance

This paper discusses the experience of teaching William Shakespeare’s plays through performance and staging the plays with university students as part of the learning experience. The learning outcomes are treated in three sections – the first relating the effects of performance on the students’ linguistic proficiency, the second giving a few examples of how the students discover and learn to master the mechanics of Renaissance theatre from the inside, and the third and final section trying to show (through examples) how making the play their own – understanding and identifying with their part – gives the students new insights that are applicable in a wider context.