Julius Caesar • 2013 - Chicago Shakespeare Theater

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface 1
Art That Lives 2
Bard’s Bio 2
The First Folio 3
Shakespeare’s England 4
The Renaissance Theater 5
Courtyard-style Theater 6
Timelines 8
Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar
Dramatis Personae 10
The Story 11
Act-by-Act Synopsis 11
Shakespeare’s Sources 13
Timeline: The Revolution 16
Treason in the House of Tudor 17
Brutus and the Republic 18
Scholars’ Perspectives
In States Unborn 21
Love, Particular and General 22
Politics as Usual 23
What the Critics Say 25
A Play Comes to Life
Julius Caesar in performance 33
A Conversation with the Director 37
A Conversation with
the Fight Choreographer 40
Strategies for Using Film
to Teach Shakespeare 42
Classroom Activities
Before You Read the Play 48
As You Read the Play 52
After You Read the Play 70
Preparing for the Performance 74
Back in the Classroom 76
Warm-Ups 78
Suggested Readings 83
Techno Shakespeare 86
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This Teacher Handbook grew out of a team effort of teachers
past and present, Chicago Shakespeare Theater artists, interns,
educators, and scholars. Intern Mariana Green revised and updated
a previous edition of this Julius Caesar handbook for this
production. Chicago Shakespeare Theater gratefully acknowledges
the groundbreaking and indelible work of Dr. Rex Gibson
and the Cambridge School Shakespeare Series, and The Folger
Shakespeare Institute, whose contributions to the field of teaching
have helped shape our own work through the years.
©2013, Chicago Shakespeare Theater
Barbara Gaines
Artistic Director
Criss Henderson
Executive Director
Chicago Shakespeare Theater is Chicago’s professional theater dedicated
to the works of William Shakespeare. Founded as Shakespeare Repertory
in 1986, the company moved to its seven-story home on Navy Pier in 1999.
In its Elizabethan-style courtyard theater, 500 seats on three levels wrap
around a deep thrust stage—with only nine rows separating the farthest
seat from the stage. Chicago Shakespeare also features a flexible 180-seat
black box studio theater, a Teacher Resource Center, and a Shakespeare
specialty bookstall.
Now in its twenty-sixth season, the Theater has produced nearly the entire
Shakespeare canon: All’s Well That Ends Well, Antony and Cleopatra, As
You Like It, The Comedy of Errors, Cymbeline, Hamlet, Henry IV Parts 1
and 2, Henry V, Henry VI Parts 1, 2 and 3, Julius Caesar, King John, King
Lear, Love’s Labor’s Lost, Macbeth, Measure for Measure, The Merchant of
Venice, The Merry Wives of Windsor, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much
Ado About Nothing, Othello, Pericles, Richard II, Richard III, Romeo and
Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, The Tempest, Timon of Athens, Troilus and
Cressida, Twelfth Night, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Two Noble
Kinsmen, and The Winter’s Tale. Chicago Shakespeare Theater was the
2008 recipient of the Regional Theatre Tony Award. Chicago’s Jeff Awards
year after year have honored the Theater, including repeated awards for Best
Production and Best Director, the two highest honors in Chicago theater.
Since Chicago Shakespeare’s founding, its programming for young audiences
has been an essential element in the realization of its mission. Team
Shakespeare supports education in our schools, where Shakespeare is part
of every required curriculum. As a theater within a multicultural city, we are
committed to bringing Shakespeare to a young and ethnically diverse audience
of 40,000 students each year. Team Shakespeare’s programming
includes free teacher workshops, student matinees of main stage shows,
post-performance discussions, comprehensive teacher handbooks, and
an abridged, original production each year of one of the “curriculum plays.”
Team Shakespeare offers a region-wide forum for new vision and enthusiasm
for teaching Shakespeare in our schools. This year, the Folger Shakespeare
Library in Washington, DC, honored that vision with the prestigious
Shakespeare Steward Award. The 2012-2013 Season offers a student
matinee series for three of Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s full-length productions:
in the winter, The School for Lies, a new adaptation by David
Ives of Molière’s The Misanthrope; and in the spring, Shakespeare’s Julius
Caesar and Henry VIII. Also this winter, a 75-minute abridged version of
Romeo and Juliet will be performed at the Theater on Navy Pier and will
tour to schools and theaters across the region. We hope that you and your
students will enjoy our work—and Shakespeare’s creative genius brought to
life on stage. ✪
Marilyn J Halperin Director of Education
Jason Harrington Education Outreach Manager
Molly Topper Learning Programs Manager
Lydia Dreyer, Mariana Green Education Interns