SHAKESPEARE: THE REMIX

2012-13 SEASON PRODUCTION STUDY GUIDE
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
MARGARET HALL
Assistant to the Artistic Director
mhall@capitalrep.org
518.462.4531 x 410
SHAKESPEARE: THE REMIX
AGNES KAPUSTA SKIFF
Education Program Manager
askiff@proctors.org
518.382.3884 x 168

TABLE OF CONTENTS
CAPITAL REP
2012-13 SEASON
A Letter from our Education Department….……….…..……......3
About Us………………………....……………...……….…..…......4
Attending a Performance…………………................................5
About the Playwright………....…………………...…….…..…....6
About the Play........................…....………………....................6-7
Hip Hop’s Origins.................…..………………………..…........7-8
Hip Hop: A Brief History........................…....……………….....9-10
Shakespeare’s Origins...........................................……...........10
William Shakespeare: A Timeline..............………….……....11-12
Elizabethan England..................................……………….........12
The Theatre in Shakespeare’s Time........….…………..…......12-13
Brief Synopses of Shakespeare’s plays used in Shakespeare:
The Remix..........................................................................13-14
From Page to Stage to Movie to Song...............................15-16
The Lanaguage.........……………………………………...…17-24
Food For Thought: Article from The New H.N.I.C.… by Todd
Boyd.............................................................................25-27
The Production: Who’s Who (Director, Cast, Prod
Team...).............................................…...…............………28-29
Elements of Design.............................................................29-30
Additional Classroom Activities..........................................31-33
Resourses for Teachers............................................................34
Resources Consulted………..........................………………….35
Teacher Evaluation..........................................………………...36
Capital Rep: Education and Outreach.....................................37
Capital Rep’s 2012-13 Education Season................................38
Capital Rep’s Sponsors............................................................39
*This study guide is an updated version of Capital Repertory Theatre’s 2007-2008
study guide for Shakespeare: The Remix; which was adapted from the Theatre
Works study guide for the show.
CAPITAL REP
ON-THE-GO!
SCHOOL TOUR
YOU come to us or
we can come to YOU!
Friend of a Friend: Tales of
the Underground Railroad
from the Capital Region
(Recommended for Grades 4-8)
By Maggie Mancinelli-Cahill
and Jill Rafferty-Weinisch
JOIN US FOR OUR 32RD SEASON OF SERIOUSLY GOOD THEATRE
PRIDE@PREJUDICE • By Daniel Elihu Kramer
Sep 28 - Oct 28, 2012 • Recommended for grades 8-12
THIS WONDERFUL LIFE • Adapted by Steve Murray & Mark Setlock
Nov 23 - Dec 22, 2012 • Recommended for grades 6-12
RACE • By David Mamet • Jan 11 - Feb 10, 2013
Recommended for grades 11 & 12 • Contains mature content & language
SINGLE GIRLS GUIDE • Book by Gordon Greenberg
Music & Lyrics by Tommy Newman • Mar 1 - 30, 2013
Recommended for grades 9-12
RED • By John Logan • Apr 19 - May 19, 2013
Recommended for grades 9-12
OR
Shakespeare The Remix
(Recommended for Grades 5-12)
By Aaron Jafferis
and Gihieh Lee
Choose between two of
Capital Rep’s most popular
On-The-Go! shows.
April 8 - May 18, 2013
2

SPRING 2013
Dear Educator:
Welcome to Capital Repertory Theatre!
Here at Capital Rep we are excited to provide
young people with an opportunity to experience a
live theatrical performance. Offering students on
opportunity to experience new ideas, challenge the
status quo and learn about others
We are thrilled to be bringing you one of this season’s On-The-Go! In School Tour performances of Shakespeare:
The Remix.
We hope you will find this guide to be a useful tool. You have permission to reproduce anything in this guide for
use in your classroom, i.e. historical context or the themes. It is designed to introduce the cultural and historical
context of the play as well as provide resources and ideas for integrating the theatre experience with your
curriculum.
Capital Rep performances are likely to generate questions and opinions among your students. Our hope is that
you will join us for a talkback with the cast following the performance where you and your students can share your
questions and reactions with the performers.
The arts provide young imaginations with stimulation, points of reference, and intellectual resources for the mind
and spirit. Our goal is to make live theatre attendance possible for all students in the Capital Region. Over 16,000
Capital Region students attended Student Matinees and Capital Rep On-The-Go! School Tour performances last
season. We hope to continue to grow and serve the needs of the Capital Region education community.
Let us know how you are using theatre in the classroom! Your success stories help us to keep the program funded.
We love to receive copies of lesson plans, student work related to our performances and your letters. These are
important testimonials to the value of the arts in education.
Fill Out the Teacher Evaluation and get a FREE pair of tickets to Capital Repertory Theatre! Complete the
evaluation for m at the back of the guide; it will help us to continue to provide programs that serve the needs of
Capital Region students – and you will receive a pair of tickets to a future Capital Rep production.
We look forward to hearing from you!
With deepest gratitude,
Margaret E. Hall & Agnes Kapusta Skiff
MARGARET HALL
Assistant to the Artistic Director
mhall@capitalrep.org
518.462.4531 x 410
AGNES KAPUSTA SKIFF
Education Program Manager
askiff@proctors.org
518.382.3884 x 168
3

ABOUT US
Capital Repertory Theatre is a non-profit professional producing theatre. In its 32-year history,
Capital Rep has produced more than 5,000 performances for the people of the Capital Region.
A member of LORT (League of Resident Theatres), Capital Rep strives to bring quality work
that explores the essence of the human condition through the stories of people, events, and
phenomena that shape our contemporary lives. Theatre, at its best, entertains, cajoles and inspires
by engaging the heart and mind through its most powerful ally — the imagination.
There are two basic types of theatre companies: producing and presenting. Capital Rep is a
producing theatre. The theatre hires a director and designers for the set, costumes, lights, and
sound. The theatre’s Artistic Director and the director select appropriate actors for all the roles in
the play. Then they all come to Albany, where the play is built and rehearsed.
In addition to the theatre space, Capital Rep has a scene shop where sets are built, a costume
shop where costumes are constructed and cared for, offices where the administrative staff of the
company works, a rehearsal hall where the shows are rehearsed and housing facilities for actors.
The resident staff of the theatre work as a team with visiting artists to put the production together.
In contrast, presenting theatres host shows that have been designed, built and rehearsed
elsewhere. Shows of this kind are frequently presented by a theatre company at many different
theatres regionally, nationally or even internationally over an extended period of time. What you
will see at Capital Rep or with our On-The-Go! tours is unique to Capital Rep, where it was built.
No one from anywhere else will see this production just as you see it!
4

ATTENDING A PERFORMANCE
Being a member of an audience is an important job. Live theatre couldn’t exist
without you! That job carries with it some responsibilities. Follow these suggestions in
order to have the best theatre experience possible!
BRING WITH YOU • Ideas, imagination, an open mind, observation skills and a sense of wonder.
LEAVE BEHIND • Cell phones, pagers, pen lights, food and drink (except at intermission) and
anything else that might distract you, the performers or other members of the audience.
THINGS TO DO BEFORE A PERFORMANCE • Learn about the show you are going to see,
arrive on time, find your seat, use the restroom.
DURING A PERFORMANCE
PLEASE DO • Applaud, laugh, pay attention and notice little details. Think about questions you
would like to have answered by the actors after the show, stay in your seat until intermission and
the end of the show.
PLEASE DON’T • Talk, sleep, eat or drink, distract others, or exit the theatre during the performance.
2011-12 EDUCATION SEASON
SUPERIOR
DONUTS
2011
BLACK PEARL
SINGS!
2012
THE SISTERS
ROSENSWEIG
2012
MAN OF LA
MANCHA
2011
ON-THE-GO!
PURE POE
2011
Superior Donuts: George Crowley, Brooks Brantly • Black Pearl Sings!: Jannie Jones, Jessica Wortham • The Sisters Rosensweig: Bernadette Quigley,
Marcy McGuigan, Yvonne Perry • Man of La Mancha: Robert Anthony Jones • Pure Poe: Kent Burnham • Production Photos by Joe Schuyler 5

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Aaron Jafferis has been working as a teaching artist in urban high schools,
middle schools, and detention centers for over ten years. He teaches
playwriting, poetry, and hip hop theatre through the study and analysis of
existing work; and through the creation, critique, performance, and publication
of new student work. His students have published chapbooks, staged poetry
slams and poetry cafes, opened for internationally-renown performers, and
performed their own plays for sold-out houses. Jafferis’ workshops emphasize
the possibility of using writing as a form of social action. Students explore
history, social issues, and current events through the media of theatre and
poetry; they then use their own writing and performance to link these issues
to their own lives, and to change the way they and their audiences think
about these themes. Aaron Jafferis has performed his hip hop poetry at
Madison Square Garden, the Kennedy Center, and the National Poetry Slam
Championships, where he was the 1997 Open Rap Slam Champion. His hip hop musical Kingdom (music
by Ian Williams) won the award for Most Promising New Musical at the 2006 New York Musical Theatre
Festival, and has been developed by Bregamos Community Theater. His solo hip hop play No Lie has
been seen at the Nuyorican Poets Café, H.E.R.E., Passage Theatre, the International Festival of Arts &
Ideas, and at high schools and colleges across the country. Hi hip hop play Shakespeare: The Remix (music
by Gihieh Lee) was commissioned by TheatreWorks (PaloAlto) and performed by TehatreWorks, St. Louis
Black Rep, Collective Consciousness and Capital Repertory Theatre. He wrote the book and English lyrics
for Ruben Flores’ Latin American Songbook series at Joe’s Pub. He was named on of “50 To Watch” in the
July/August 2007 issue of The Dramatist. He has received artist residencies from TheatreWorks and the
MacDowell Colony. He has written poetry for the Urban Bush Women dance troupe and for The Nation
and Northeast magazines. He received his BA in Arts & Social Change from the University of California
at Berkeley, studied at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, and received his MFA in Musical
Theatre Writing from NYU, where he was an Alberto Vilar Global Fellow in the Performing Arts.
A note from the book writer/lyricist to Teachers and Students from the Playwright:
Shayla, a high school student with a quick temper and a smart mind and mouth, is a tribute to various
young women I’ve taught in high school and juvenile detention. Shayla is also like me: she doubts
the value of school and Shakespeare until she discovers the real reason for writing – to move people.
When conceiving of the play, Gihieh and I looked for the most basic connection between hip hop
and Shakespeare – something more fundamental than their shared love for wordplay. We decided
Shakespeare’s job was to move the audience – move them to think, to feel, to applaud, to laugh, just like
the goal of a hip hop MC is to Move Crowds. That’s why both hip hop artists and the plays of Shakespeare
are meant to be heard live, not read dead on the page. And that’s why I, and Gihieh, and Shayla, and
Shakespeare, became writers – to move people. We wanted to portray Shakespeare not as some perfect,
untouchable intellect, but as someone to argue with, play with, use, and ultimately, love. You can’t truly
love someone you worship. You have to really get to know him. That was the last key to the show for us:
finding Shakespeare’s own faults and unfulfilled wants. A ghost wouldn’t be hanging around for hundreds
of years if it didn’t want something. We knew Shayla had to be the answer to Shakespeare’s problems
– the person who proves his continued relevance and the person to whom he passes the torch. Maybe
Shayla is the next Shakespeare. Maybe you are. Write.
~Aaron Jafferis
ABOUT THE PLAY
6

THE SCRIPT
What does Will Shakespeare have in common with hip hop?
We’re both so hot, we’ll make your bottom lip drop!
Shakespeare and Shayla are in the midst of a wild and wonderful battle of words, colliding original text
from Shakespeare’s plays with original rhymes fresh from the mouth of a high school girl. The Remix is a
theatrical ode to all that is good, relevant and irreverent in Shakespeare and in hip hop.
When Shayla, a hip-hop-loving school girl on the verge of dropping out, meets Shakespeare, a 440-yearold
ghost having a mid-death crisis, a pitched battle of wits erupt that pits Shayla’s sharp and questioning
young mind against Shakespeare’s hunger to prove himself relevant. Shayla and Shakespeare jump in and
out of scenes from Hamlet, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Merchant of Venice. Their debate
ranges from the rhythm of beatboxing to the rhythm of iambic pentameter, from the violence of hip hop
to the violence of Shakespeare. In the end, Shayla is speaking fluent iambic pentameter and Shakespeare
is rhyming over a hip hop beat, but it is the third character – the “ghost” audience of school kids watching
and often participating in the show – that is left most wowed and inspired by the power of words. The
Remix is an unparalleled way to re-introduce Shakespeare (as you’ve known him) to audiences of all ages.
HIP HOP’S ORIGINS
SHOWCASING THEIR VERBAL DEXTERITY AND STORYTELLING ABILITIES
During the 1970s, the new sound of Hip Hop emerged in parks, clubs, and parties around New York City.
It was the new voice of inner city youth who were living in post-civil rights era of voting for all people,
regardless of race, integrated schools, and the expansion of African Americans into the middle and upper
classes. These artists, in reaction to disco and funk, created fresh sounds using existing records on two
or more turn tables. In combination with these sounds, performers spun poetry to the music, showcasing
their verbal dexterity and story telling abilities. But it is the compelling and often confrontational themes
of the inner city that continues to create controversy for the art form.
“Hip Hop is inherently political, the language is political. It uses language as a weapon – not a weapon to
violate or not a weapon to offend, but a weapon that pushes the envelope that provokes people, makes
people think.” ~Todd Boyd, author of The New H.N.I.C.
In the three decades since its inception the culture, artistry, and the messages of Hip Hop have spread
across America and around the world. It continues to define a redefine itself as an art form.
7

To understand the diverse perspective embodied in the Hip Hop movement, we must listen to the voices
of the artists themselves.
Talk’s Q and A with Public Enemy’s Chuck D
CONNECTIONS:
• Why do you think Hip Hop developed when it did?
VOICES OF HIP HOP
Chuck D: Hip Hop is basically a term for black creativity. There should be a more permanent museum
context for it in New York and there are plans to do that. It being a cultural thing- musical history –I
wonder why it isn’t taught in schools.
I would always laugh when somebody would come up to me and say, “man, I’m 21; I definitely don’t
wanna be rapping when I’m 30.” I’d say, “What’re you gonna do? Open up a cleaners? You’re still gonna
rap, ‘cause it’s an art. Would a painter stop painting when he its 50?”
Sunshine by Coolio
If love was a flower I’d spread the petals about the planet
And plant seeds throughout every city and country
Even in those who do not want me
I try to make some sense of the situation we call life
Some, verbal illustration to help ease this strife
Some, lyrical penetration to try to make things right
In hopes that what I’m saying can saturate your mindframe
And help you with the pain and the strain of the everyday struggle
I don’t need it all, I wanna see all y’all bubble
And rise to the top then prove to be hard like a rock
Cos you know it don’t stop unless we let it all stop
So when you face to face with adversity, just curse him, C
And look him in the eye, and let him know, that he can’t hurt a G
And you willin’ ta risk it all
For the things of people that you believe in
So educate yourself in order to assess your achievements
And if I had to explain this realer so you could see it in your mind –
I guess it’s kinda like sunshine
• Do internet searches on Disco and Funk. What makes Hip Hop different than these musical styles?
• Why do you think Hip Hop isn’t being taught in schools?
• What is the artist saying in the song? How is language important and/or useful to Coolio?
• Sunshine was featured prominently on American radio. How do you think the public responded?
EXERCISE:
• If you were going to write about the issues facing you in your neighborhood or in your school, what would
those issues be? Make a list.
• Using that list, come up with some titles for a song your class could write.
• Have each student create the first two lines of one of the ideas.
9
8

HIP HOP: A BRIEF HISTORY
BY: MIKE MERRILL
“DJs and MCs and graffiti artists who use walls and subway trains as marquees, we go back to b-boys,
breakdancin’, break beats, and it’ll never cease and on that note we say peace.” ~Rakim, on the rich Hip-
Hop history of New York City
Hip Hop. I’m sure many have heard the term before, but very
few people understand the real meaning. “It’s just another
word for rap.” Wrong. Dead wrong. Although the words
“Hip Hop” and “rap” have become nearly interchangeable,
there is an original, deeper meaning to the word “Hip Hop” (also
spelled hip-hop or hip hop). It names an entire culture, a truly
American culture that has developed into a way of life for many people worldwide since its genesis in the
early 1970’s.
Hip Hop itself consists of five main forms of expression.
• MCing – which is the art of writing and performing rhymes, usually over rhythmheavy
music.
• DJing – The use of turntables to manipulate records and
create new music is known as DJing.
• Graffiti – Urban forms of art where words and pictures are drawn with spraypaint
on walls, trains and other urban canvases is known as graffiti.
• Break dancing – is a specific style of dance tat is often very
athletic, and almost always done to music created by Hip Hop
DJs or MCs.
• Beat boxing - or vocal percussion, is the art of creating beats or rhythms using the
human mouth.
Aside from these five pieces of Hip Hop cultures, there also exist numerous other
characteristics, including a specific style of fashion
and a loose set of philosophies. However, these other characteristics are
encompassed in and have been molded by the first five aspects of Hip Hop.
The great thing about Hip Hop culture is that is all-American. It has
its deepest roots in African tradition, but is
primarily built upon dance, art, and music that is
American. People of all races, nationalities, genders,
religions, and ages are part of Hip Hop cultures,
despite the fact that inner-city black youth began the movement. Hip Hop
promotes diversity in America, and around the world, by ignoring cultural
boundaries and focusing on the forms of expression at hand. Perhaps the best
part of all is that anyone can do it.
9

HIP HOP: A BRIEF HISTORY CONT...
Tupac Shakur, from Tupac:
Resurrection (1971-1996)
“When I auditioned for the Baltimore school for the arts that was one of my good
luck times. I spent three years in Baltimore. But at my homeboy’s high school,
it’s not like that. They don’t have trips to go see Broadway plays, they don’t read
the things we were reading, and they didn’t know what I was talking about when
I like, ‘Yo, Shakespeare’s dope.’ They don’t have the same experiences that we
had. Then I started thinking, like, damn why is that? Cuz our school that I went to is
mostly for the white and rich minorities.
And I started going. ‘Damn, man, I would have been a totally different person had I not been exposed to
these things.’ Hell no, I was living in the ghetto. We didn’t have any lights, no electricity. We was about
to get evicted.”
CONNECTIONS:
• How does Hip Hop culture use different kinds of creative talent? How do these talents work together?
• How has Hip Hop changed since its beginnings in the 1970s?
• Compare what you know about Hip Hop with the following statements.
• Do you agree or disagree? Why?
- “Hip Hop crosses cultural boundaries.”
- “Anyone can do Hip Hop.”
- “Hip Hop that discusses the glorification of wealth, violence, and indulgences tends to be popular with
record buyers and radio listeners.”
• Who are you favorite Hip Hop artists? Why do you like them?
• What is Tupac saying in the quote about cultural awareness? How can Hip Hop teach people about different
cultures or experiences?
SHAKESPEARE’S ORIGINS
William Shakespeare, also known as the Bard, is the most written-about
author in the history of Western civilization. His theatre company, the
Lord Camberlain’s Men, was the most successful in London in his day.
Shakespeare had plays published and sold in octavo editions, or “pennycopies”
to his literate audiences, the first playwright to experience his
works published and sold as popular literature in the midst of is career.
For all his fame and celebration, Shakespeare’s personal history remains
mysterious. There are just two primary sources of information on the
Bard’s life: his writing, and various legal and church documents that have
survived from Elizabethan times. William Shakespeare’s legacy is a body of work that may never again be
equaled in Western civilization. His words have endured for 400 years, and still have the power to reach
across the centuries as powerfully as ever.
10

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: A TIMELINE
Researched by Le’aujene Davis, one of Capital Rep’s Albany High School Interns
-William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564 (at least it is believed that he was born on or near this
date) to John Shakespeare & Mary Arden.
-It is generally believed that William was baptized on April 26, 1564 at Holy
Trinity Church in Stratford upon Avon.
-William was the third of eight children. He had
two older sisters (Joan & Judith) and three younger
brothers (Gilbert, Richard & Edmund).
-There are little to no records of his childhood, but it is
believed that Shakespeare attended King’s New School in Stratford, England.
- On November 28, 1582 Williams Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway,
in Worcester. When they wed, William was 18 and Anne 26 years old, and
pregnant.
-On May 26, 1583 their first child, Susanna, was born.
-On February 2, 1585 Anne gave birth to a set of twins, who the couple would
name Hamnet & Judith.
-At the tender age of 11, young Hamnet died of unknown
causes.
-By 1592 Shakespeare was earning a living as an actor and playwright in London.
Though he was living in London his family was still in Stratford upon Avon.
-The early 1590s also show records stating that William was a managing partner in
the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, an acting company in London.
-March 2nd, 1592: Shakespeare’s first play, Henry VI Part I, was produced. It was
performed between 1592-1593, and was first printed in 1594.
-Shakespeare’s first piece of work, Venus and Adonis,
was published in 1593.
-By 1597 William Shakespeare had published 15 of the 37 plays attributed to him.
-1597 also saw Shakespeare buying a large house called “The Great House of
New Place.”
-By 1599 William and his business partners helped Peter Smith to build the Globe
Theatre. The theatre was located on the Southbank of The River Thames.
11

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: A TIMELINE CONT...
-In 1613 the Globe Theatre burns down. In 1989, after work on the new Globe had already begun,
archaeologists discovered about 10% of the remains of the theatre’s original foundations beneath Anchor
Terrace. The new Globe, which opened in 1997, stands only 200 yards from the original site.
-On April 23, 1616 William Shakespeare died of unknown causes, in Stratford, England. It was his 52nd
birthday.
ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND
In his plays, Shakespeare captured the realities and limitations of sixteenth century England.
Understanding this society will help us identify with the struggles and triumphs of Shakespeare’s
characters.
Elizabethan England was governed by the concept of feudalism (also known as the class system), in which
every citizen was answerable to another, more “worthy” citizen of an upper class. A person’s class was a
consequence of his or her birth, and this “natural” order was considered inflexible. People married within
their class and lived as members of this class with rare exception. This class order also called for people
further up the social scale to behave in a more “civilized,” intellectual fashion.
Artists and entertainers were considered vagrants, lower class, and not
responsible to any particular lord. Perhaps dealing with his own frustrations as
an artist in this class position, Shakespeare attempted to upset this “natural”
order in his plays, such as having a member of a lower class aspire to a higher
position or a women dress as a man for some deviant purpose. This makes
for good drama and begins to challenge such a rigid class system, but at the
end of the play Shakespeare always restored the hierarchy. This pleased the
nobility and promoted good public relations between the theatre and the
ruling class.
Sixteenth century England’s class system of natural order extended to religion, appearance, and race. The
noble Elizabethans thought of themselves in the highest possible terms. White, Christian, beautiful people
were the Elizabethan ideal, and anyone who did fit this mold was looked on with disdain. Shakespeare’s
plays are filled with characters expressing their contempt for those outside the norm. However, all
of Shakespeare’s characters are complex, not stereotypes. As a member of a lower class himself,
Shakespeare understood some of what it was like to be on the outside.
(Information taken from the Shakespeare Resource Center: www.bardweb.net)
THE THEATRE IN SHAKESPEARE’S TIME
Without television, radio, films, or computers, the people of Elizabethan London
had a limited choice of entertainment. Those wealthy enough could pay to
have musicians, dancers, actors and fencers perform in their homes. The
common people most often went to taverns, bear baiting rings, or theatres. For
about the price of a bear baiting match, commoners could stand in front or to
the side of the theatre stage and watch a production. The people who stood in
this area were known as groundlings. For more money, patrons could purchase
a seat in the galleries (the theatre walls) or a special box seat. Shakespeare
wrote for each segment of this audience, incorporation more base humor with sophisticated commentary.
12

But the groundings are the audience members who make performances at the Globe so memorable:
they mediate between stage and galleries they have an immediate response to jokes, they are made part
between stage and galleries, they have an immediate response to jokes, they are made part of the action,
both imaginatively by the actors who see them as an army, a forest or a court, but also by their own verbal
and physical participation such a throwing back the apple a character had just thrown into the yard.
Shakespeare’s work was produced at two theatres in London: the outdoor Globe Theatre on the southern
bank of the River Thames, and the more expensive indoor Blackfrair’s Theatre near the city center.
CONNECTIONS:
• Consider this idea of feudalism in Shakespeare’s time. Do we still have a class system in place today? What
does our societal hierarchy look like?
• Review the quote by Tupac on page 10 and consider the idea of access to the arts and literature. Tupac
asserts that students from the school in his home and neighborhood did not have the same access to theatre
and Shakespeare as those students at the more privileged school. Do you agree? Was that the same in
Shakespeare’s time?
• Today, we consider Shakespeare and his language as very lofty and high brow. Do you think that was the
case his day?
BRIEF SYNOPSES OF SHAKESPEARE’S PLAYS USED IN
SHAKESPEARE: THE REMIX
The Merchant of Venice
Portia, a wealthy and beautiful young woman of Belmont, is courted by a number of suitors, among them
is Bassanio. He is short of cash, and he appeals to his friend Antonio (the title character) for help on this
score during the courtship. Antonio agrees to lend his friend three thousand ducats for a period of three
months, but in order to supply the funds; he himself must borrow a sum from a money-lender, Shylock.
Shylock agrees to supply the loan with no interest – but only if Antonio agrees “in merry sport” to a
clause that allows Shylock to cut off a pound of Antonio’s flesh in the event of a forfeiture…Antonio can’t
pay the debt and must go to court to defend him. Portia (in disguise) goes to court to help resolve the
breech of contract. In the end, Shylock cannot extract a pound of flesh without shedding blood and loses
the case. For every character, but not shylock, mercy carries the day.
Macbeth
This play takes place in Scotland. It begins with three witches predicting that Macbeth will become
King, among other political achievements. These predictions trouble him because he is not in line for
the throne. But some of the witches prophesies start to come true so he becomes very ambitious and
begins to believe that he can become king and plots to murder him. When Macbeth hesitates, his wife
(Lady Macbeth) insists that they go through with it. After an agony of deliberation he murders Duncan,
the king. In the end Lady Macbeth goes crazy from the guilt of the deed. Macbeth is murdered during
battle by the slain king’s son, Malcolm, who eventually inherits the throne. The play is dark symphony of
fear and miscalculation.
13

BRIEF SYNOPSES OF SHAKESPEARE’S PLAYS CONT...
Richard III
Richard is one of Shakespeare/s most interesting characters. He is a deformed hunchback who is greedy
for the throne and kills his whole family in order to obtain it. The play is about one man and the havoc he
wreaks on England. The play is a pageant of ruthless ambition.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Hermia is ordered to wed Demetrius; she refuses because she is in love with Lysander. So they decide
to elope and run off into the forest at night. They share their plan with Hermia’s best friend Helena, who
is in love with Demetrius. Meanwhile, in the realm of the fairies, King Oberon, who is having a fight with
his queen sends Puck, his aide, to find a flower that has magic powers. When the dust from this flower
is sprinkled into the eyes of a person, they will fall in love with the first person they see. Puck messes up
and sprinkles the dust in Lysander’s eyes who sees Helena when he awakens and thinks that he loves her
instead of Hermia. In the end, after many errors and love spells being cast, as well as further conflicts and
confused characters, the world of the lovers is restored, including the world of the fairy king and queen.
The play balances light romantic entanglements with brief but profound meditations on the illogical
appeals of love and dreams.
CONNECTIONS:
1. After reading the brief plot synopsis, can your students think of any contemporary characters that are like the
ones described in Shakespeare’s plays or that they could see playing these roles?
Make a List on the Board
Some Examples that may fit:
• Hillary Rodham Clinton
• Barack Obama
• One of their best friends who likes someone who doesn’t like them back
• A friend who is liked by someone but doesn’t like them back
• George W. Bush
• Saddam Hussein
• Britney Spears
• Prince William
Discuss whether your students think these real life people are similar to these characters mentioned in these
plays.
2. Students should read a scene from one of the texts. Then, in groups students are to decipher the language.
Give them a dictionary if necessary. What do they think is going on between the characters? Have your students
look up these plays on-line and find out who these characters are. What other facts about these characters can
they find out? Are there some students who have seen these plays performed? Have them discuss what they
saw on stage.
14

FROM PAGE TO STAGE TO MOVIE OR SONG
Shakespeare’s work is meant to be performed – heard - rather than read. Many examples of Shakespeare’s
works are available on DVD as filmed plays or movies.
Examples:
SHAKESPEARE CAN BE DAUNTING!
So, we suggest that students read one scene, break down the scene and then view the scene from a
filmed version. Make sure to preview the filmed versions and check ratings for age appropriateness.
Richard III: Richard III staring and directed by Laurence Olivier, 1955; Richard III with Ian McKellan, 1995;
Looking for Richard with Al Pacino, 1996.
Hamlet: Hamlet with Laurence Olivier, 1948; Hamlet with Mel Gibson, 1990; Rosencranz and Guildenstern
are Dead by Tom Stoppard, 1996; Hamlet with Kenneth Branagh, 1996.
Macbeth: Throne of Blood by Akira Kurosawa, 1957; Macbeth by Roman Polanski, 1973.
Romeo and Juliet: West Side Story, 1961; Romeo and Juliet by Franco Zeffirelli, 1968; Romeo + Juliet by
Baz Lurman, 1968; Shakespeare in Love, 1999.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream: A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Peter Hall,1968; A Midsummer Night’s
Dream by Michael Hoffman with Kevin Kline and Michelle Pfeiffer, 1999
LIKEWISE, HIP HOP IS MEANT TO BE HEARD RATHER THAN READ.
Most Hip Hop songs tell a story. Ask students to bring in their favorite Hip Hop songs with
accompanying lyrics. Distribute the lyrics to the class and talk about the story. Then listen to the
selection with music and discuss how the music contributes to the artistry of the piece.
(Note: You want to specify that students bring radio versions of songs and pre-screen for content
and language.)
15

FROM PAGE TO STAGE TO MOVIE OR SONG CONT...
Love
I start to think, and then I sink
Into the paper, like I was ink
When I’m writing I’m trapped in
Between the line
I escape when I finish the rhyme
I spent my early years in Roosevelt
Project
It was a bright valley wit some dark
prospects
This is far before the days of high
glamour and pose
Aiyyo power from the street light made
The place dark
I know a few understand what I’m talking
About
It was love for he thing that made me
Stay in the house
Spendin time, writin rhymes
Tryin to find words tat descried the vibe
That’s inside the space
When you close yo’ eyes and screw yo’ face
Is this the pain of too much tenderness
To make me nod my head in reverence
Should I visit this place and remember it?
To build landmarks ere as evidence
Night time, spirit shook my temperament
To write rhymes that portray this
Sentiment.
Excerpt from Mos Def’s song Love,
From the album Black on Both Sides
16

THE LANGUAGE
SHAKESPEARE wrote many of his plays in alternating PROSE, which sounds like everyday speech, and
VERSE, which has a particular structure or rhyme or rhythm, for two reasons:
1) Traditionally, beginning with the ancient Greeks, plays were written in verse because this elevated the
storytelling aspect of theatre to a new register of language, separating it from the everyday.
2) Verse was easier than prose for an actor to memorize. This helped actors in Shakespeare’s time that
played many roles and performed often.
Most often, Shakespeare wrote in BLANK VERSE, which has rhythm but does not always rhyme. The
rhythm is called IAMBIC PENTAMETER, meaning five sets of iambs, or pairs of unstressed and stressed
syllables. IAMBIC PENTAMETER IS MODELED ON THE RHYTHM OF THE HUMAN HEARTBEAT.
Sometimes a line does not have ten beats but more or less than that. This has great significance to the actor
because Shakespeare is actually guiding the way he wants the actor to pause. If the lines have eleven
beats, perhaps he’s indicating that the character is excited and having one thought right after another.
The iambs are the actual road map for the actor.
In HIP HOP, verse varies more than it does for Shakespeare; most songs have their own unique rhythm
and rhyme. The words in Hip Hop songs and the pattern they follow are the lyrics. As in much of modern
songwriting, Hip Hop lyrics are typically broken into verses and choruses. Verses give specific information,
and choruses are more general and thematic.
Except from Romeo & Juliet
O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse they name;
Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.
‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What’s Montague? that which we call a rose by any
other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself.
VERSE AND LYRICS
17

THE LANGUAGE CONT...
Excerpt from Love Rain with Mos Def and Jill Scott
And then she arrived
Like day break inside a railway tunnel
Like the new moon, like a diamond in the mines
Like high noon to a drunkard, sudden
She made my heart beat in a now-now time signature
Her skin a canvas for ultraviolet brushstrokes
She was the sun’s painting
She was a deep cognac color
Her eyes sparkled like lights along the new city
Her lips pursed as if her breath was too sweet
And full for her mouth to hold
I said, “You are the beautiful, distress of mathematics.”
I said, “For you, I would peel open the clouds like new fruit
And give you lightning and thunder as a dowry
I would make the sky shed all of its stars like rain
And I would clasp the constellations across your waist
And I would make the heavens your cape
And they would be pleased to cover you
CONNECTIONS:
• Read both examples aloud. Fell their rhythms and hear the rhyme, if there is any. Choose a word or
phrase to describe the way the verse sounded to you.
• What topics or themes are the speakers dealing with in each example? What emotions are conveyed
through the images?
• Fine more examples from authors (more songs, poems, or plays). How do the rhyme and rhythm
patterns change in their works?
WORDS AND IMAGES
VERSE AND LYRICS
Excerpt from Freeing Shakespeare’s voice: the actors guide to talking the Text, by Kristin Linklater. Theatre
Communications Group, New York: 1992.
Our conditioned, unconscious relationship with words is utilitarian. They get things done for us.
“Language is a tool” is a phrase one commonly hears in today’s trade-minded society. When attached to
“doing,” words must go somewhere; move along a horizontal road with a linear purpose. The language
of poetry is different. It is attached to “being.” It expresses inner states and emotional responses
to outer events. To speak poetry, words must be plugged in to the inner condition, generating energy
on a vertical path running between mind and heart. The language energies of spoken poetry run
simultaneously on vertical and horizontal pathways, or, if you like, on electrical circuits that are at once
introverted and extroverted. A consciousness of how words are spoken is necessary in cultivating the
ability to speak poetically. For inspired instruction, here is a poem of Pablo Neruda’s “Verbo” that I like
very much. I have made a literal translation from the original Spanish.
18

When words are seen, tasted, touched, felt, they penetrate and break up patterns of thought. They
reach into emotions, memories, associations, and they spark the imagination. The bring life. They way
you speak Shakespeare’s words will determine the dept at which you plumb their meaning. Neruda’s
passionate desire for something rough and tactile in words is indivisible form the passion of is creative
process. He says that the words must be the senses, must be the emotions because only then will they
plumb the depths of the human condition and tell the truth. The Shakespeare speaker does well to listen
to him.
Voy a arrugar esta palabra – I’m going to crumple this word
Voy a torcerla, -- I’m going to twist it,
Si, -- yes,
Es demasiado lisa, -- it’s too smooth,
Es como si un gran perro o – it’s a though a big dog or
Un gran rio – a big river
Le hubiera repasado - had been licking it over and
Lengua o agua – over with tongue or water.
Durante muchos anos. – for many years.
Quiero que en la palabra -- I want the word
Se vea la asperaza, -- to reveal the roughness,
Las sal ferruginosa, -- the ferruginous salt,
La fuerza desdentada – the toothless strength
De la tierra, -- of the earth
La sangre – the blood
De los que hablarno y de los que – of those who talked and of those
No hableron – who did not talk.
Quiero ver la sed – I want to see the thirst
Adentro de las silabas: -- inside the syllables,
Quiero tocar el fuego – I want to touch the fire
En el sonido: -- in the sound:
Quiero sentir la oscuridad – I want to feel the darkness
Del grito. Quiero – of the scream. I want
Palabras aperas, -- rough words,
Como piedras virgnes. – like virgin rock.
19

CONNECTIONS:
• What senses were engaged when you read the poem?
• How does your response to the poem change when you read it aloud?
• Create your own sensory poem. Select ten words from Neruda’s poem and use them to create your
own poem that evokes an emotion.
A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phase that ordinarily designates one thing is used
to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison, and evoking specific images and emotions
through the association of those two things. The language of both Hip Hop and Shakespeare are ripe with
metaphors.
Compare and contrast the language in the sonnet below with the Mos Def lyrics from Love Rain.
Sonnet XVII
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art mor lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of
May,
And summer’s lease hath all to short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course
Untrimmed:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his
Shade,
When in eternal lines to time though grow’st,
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this give life to
Thee.
HIP HOP WORDS & SHAKESPEARE WORDS
Do you know how new words and phrases become popular in society? Sometimes a poet, writer or singer
invents a word or phrase that people begin to use so much that almost everyone knows the word and
eventually it might even be added to the dictionary. Did you know that Shakespeare and Hip Hop artists
have both invented new words that are used by many people today? They have also taken old words and
mixed them with other words to create a new word or phrase. This is another way that they have both
“remixed” our English language.
Below you will find words and phrases that were created by The Bard and Hip Hop artists:
20

Shakespeare
It’s Greek to me It’s not understandable
Green-eyes jealousy Deep jealousy from a girl
Tongue-tied Unable to speak
Fair play Fair dealings
Slept not one wink Now sleep
Short shrift Sort changed
Cold comfort Not much comfort
Too much of a good thing Something bad
Lived in a fool’s paradise Thought things were good but they were really bad
High time It’s about time
The long and the sort of it A brief synopsis
The game is up The game is over
Teeth set on edge Bothered very much
Without rhyme or reason Not understandable
Give the devil is due Get revenge
Bid good riddance Say goodbye
Send someone packing Send someone away
Dead as a door-nil Dead
Laughing stock A fool
Devil incarnate A bad person
Stony-heated villain Someone without remorse
Bloody-minded Someone who wants to fight
Blinking idiot A very stupid person
It is all one to me It’s the same ting
For goodness’ sake Expressing annoyance
Eyesore Something ugly to look at
Truth be known Everyone knows the truth
Suspect foul play Suspects someone caused something bad to happen
Hip-Hop Artists
She’s all that She’s really cool
Bling bling Jewelry
Bail out Run away from someone
Bite To copy lyrics or to steal
Bones Dominoes or dice
Boo-yaa Something good
Bounce To leave
Boys in blue Police
Buggin’ To act strange or weird
Bunk Unpleasant or bad
Chill Relaxed, mellow
Crew Group or band
Cruise Driving around
Dig To understand or like
Dis Insult
Down Low Secret
Flaking Untrustworthy
21

Flick Movie
Fly Attractive
Gaffle To harass
Gift of gab Talk someone into something
Hoodie T-shirt or sweatshirt
Hooptie Old car in bad shape
Whodi Address someone as a friend
Wreck To accomplish something, to destroy or to show great free styling skills
Scrilla Money
Sellout Doing something only to make money
Skill Ability on the microphone
Snap A form of verbal jesting
Hip Hop terms and definitions excerpted from: http://www.rapdict.org
CONNECTIONS:
• Can you make up any words of your own? In groups of four, have each person make up three new
words with definitions, have each person explain the words to the other members of the group and
try to talk about a) sports b) music, and c) school using the new vocabulary words that you have made
up.
• Is it hard to make up new words?
• Which words do you want to keep and which words do you think would not become words in the
dictionary?
• Why do you think that both The Bard and Hip Hop artists decided to create new words? What was
missing for them in English language?
22

WRITE! MAKE A SONNET
Adapted from an exercise created by Jeff Schober, Baker Road Alternative School
http://www.ulen.com/shakespeare/teachers/lessons/lessons.html
Because of their structure and brevity, sonnets are a good way to introduce Shakespeare, his language,
and iambic pentameter. (Sonnets 27, 57 and 116 are easy for students to understand.)
STEP 1 – READING A SONNET
Distribute copies of sonnets of your choice. Explain that Shakespearean sonnets are highly structured
poems of 14 lines with the ABAB CDCD EFEF GG rhyme scheme. Each line is written in iambic
pentameter – 10 beats or syllables per line. Explain that the rhythm resembles a heartbeat (dad um, dad
um), with the first beat being a little weaker, and the second beat a little stronger.
Read through the sonnets and discuss the possible meanings for each line.
Try having each student read one line aloud exaggerating the rhythm verbally or tapping their palm
against their chest to reveal the iambic pentameter.
STEP 2 – SPEAKING IN IAMBS
Once they explore the meter a bit, students should push desks to the corners of the room and sit in a
circle on the floor. Explain that everyone will pound out an original iambic pentameter sentence, one at a
time. Give an example, such as: “Hello, my name is Mary and I teach this class!” Ask for volunteers, and
remind students that the lesson is a learning process and no one is expected to be an expert. If someone
gets stuck, encourage the class to help out.
STEP 3 –BECOMING A BARD
Ask the students to return to their desks and take out a blank sheet of paper. Have them number line
from 1 to 14. Ask a volunteer to give you a word, and have students write that word on line 1. Ask for
another word line 2. Then, for line 3, solicit a word, and have students write that word on line 1. Line 4
must likewise rhyme with line 2. Continue this way, rhyming lines 5 and 7, 6 and e,9 and 11,10 and 12.
Lines 13 and 14 must rhyme with each other.
Students can work on this individually or in pairs, depending on the ability level of your class. They now
have an outline for their own sonnet. Encourage them to write their sonnet to a particular person for a
particular reason. Perhaps they are writing to a beloved or to tell a secret or to express a problem.
“Beyond their common interest in rhythm, they both share a love of language and a brilliance of wit.
And, particularly in hip hop’s less commercially sensationalized core, they both cry out against mindless
violence in favor of love and respect.”
-Cliff Faulkner
23

DISCUSS: HIP HOP & SHAKESPEARE: SIDE-BY-SIDE
At the heart of Shakespeare: The Remix is the idea hat two art forms separated by hundreds of years
have much in common. Read the statements below and decide if they relate to Shakespeare, Hip Hop
or both – make a venn diagram on the board and have students write the statements in the place they
believe it should exist.
Then add your won ideas, based on the topics of language and lyrics, audience, content, performance
style, culture and impact.
SHAKESPEARE
• Performed by a full cast of actors
• Some are funny, some sad, some about love
• Many songwriters and mixers involved
• Has a single writer
• Is collaborative (lots of people work together)
• These are set amounts of syllables per line
• Wide range of moods and topics, often combined in one song
• Uses rhyme to create pleasing sounds and carry listen along
• Performed by MCs, DJs, and break dancers or Hip Hop Crews
• Comments on society and relationships
HIP-HOP
• Commercial appeal
• Makes up words
• Discusses Classes
• Can be violent
• Can uplift spirit and inspire
• Had questionable entertainment value to different ages and racial groups
• Is meant to be public, for the masses
• Accessible to the lower, upper and middle classes
24

FOOD FOR THOUGHT
The New H.N.I.C. The death of Civil Rights and the Reign of Hip Hop by Todd Boyd, published by New
York University Press. 2003.
“I would suggest that you might get a better read of what’s going on in the world of Black people today
by listening to DMX on “It’s Dark and Hell is Hot” than by listening to repeated broadcasts of Martin
Luther King speeches.”
In the Weekend Edition Saturday interview with NPR’s Scott Simon, Boyd said he’s not demeaning King
in making the comparison. “I would suggest that Martin Luther King and his politics are very specific to a
certain time and it’s important for us to learn from that, but if we want to talk about the present and the
future, hip hop is much more immediate and much more relevant. We’re in a moment where we can’t
simply look at things from that 1960s perspectives and expect for it to hold up in the present day”
“I think what Black Power did and what hip hop would pick up on later, was move away from the sort of
passive sense of suffering, ‘we shall overcome’. Hip Hop is much more active, much more aggressive, and
much more militant.”
An excerpt from The New H.N.I.C., the Death of Civil Rights and the Reign of Hip Hop
There was a time in the not too distant past when hip hop was thought to be meaningless noise, simply a
passing fad, another annoying youthful trend destined to go the way off disco, the betamax, and Rubik’s
cubes. Over the course of the past twenty years, however, hip hop culture has gone from being a marginal
New York subculture to being a phenomenon that not only has saturated mainstream America but also has
had a massive impact at a global level.
Shortly after, hip hop diva Lauryn Hill, who received five Grammy awards at the 1999 ceremony, and who
appeared on the cover of that issue of Time, quizzically stated after accepting award number five, “[T]
his is crazy….cause this is hip hop.” Her astonishment at receiving such widespread acclaim while being
immersed in a culture once deemed insignificant, even by the music industry, is truly a reflection of the
arduous road hip hop has traveled since its meager beginnings in the South Bronx some twenty years
earlier.
Though the roots of the culture are informed by the African American oral tradition, as well as the lived
conditions of poor Black and Latino youth in postindustrial New York, hip hop has been able to expand
from this initial base, and has become, in my mind, a dominant generational voice throughout the world,
be they ganagbangers in South Central Los Angeles, Algerian immigrants in Paris, or blackface Japanese
youth bouncing to the phattest track in Tokyo’s Roppongi district, not to mention the proverbial suburban
White teenagers or rural “rednecks” who also constitute a large segment of hip hop’s consumer base.
Hip hop has now revolutionized the times precisely because it is music from the margins that has grown
up to consume the mainstream. As Jay-Z says, “[W]e brought the suburbs to the ‘hood.” However, unlike
the blues or the rhythm and blues that formed the basis for rock and roll, hip hop did not need to be
repackaged in Whiteface for it to be consumed by the masses, and this is a telling commentary on the
historical changes that have taken place in American since the 1960s.
It is my assertion that hip hop never went to the mainstream, the mainstream came to hip hop, and this
reversal or shift in power relations underlies the cultural concerns that will form the basis of this book. As
hip hop pioneer and present-day rap mogul Russell Simmons says in his book Life and Def, “I see hip hop
culture as the new American mainstream. We don’t change for you; you adapt to us.”
25

FOOD FOR THOUGHT CONT...
Hip hop, a music that in its very definition about exists on the margins, must now confront life
in the mainstream. This has, at times, been difficult, similar to the contradictions experienced by
many successful rappers themselves, when their present life of luxury conflicts with their ghetto roots.
On another lever though, hip hop has become a profound expression of something much larger. The
generation that emerged in the aftermath of the civil rights movement remains perplexed over whether
they will actually try to integrate with mainstream society or whether they will choose to remain isolated in
their own existence.
This classic American dilemma over assimilation has been revisited through hip hop. In some ways, like
the characters in Lorraine Hansberry’s A raisin in the Sun, we find ourselves back at the same place many
African Americans were at in the late 1950s/ early 1960s: pushing for integration but constantly asking at
what cost.
Hip Hop, a social movement in and of itself, has been the most visible expression of this societal
trepidation in regard to a full embrace of American society. In my mind, this is evocative of Francis Ford
Coppola’s Godfather saga, in which Italian immigrants try to become American citizens; over the course
of their journey, we see the toil and strife involved in making this happen. Though African Americans have
faced more difficult fate relative to mainstream social mobility, they have often demonstrated the same
struggles in life, and through cultural expression.
Hip hop has become the most compelling contemporary articulation of this age-old American question.
It is this examination of post-civil rights African Americans and their struggles regarding this dilemma of
assimilation, as expressed through hip hop, that again underlines the motivation for this book.
THE HUMAN VOICE AS A WEAPON
“Hip Hop is inherently political, the language is political,” Boyd says. “It uses language as a weapon – not
a weapon to violate or not a weapon to offend, but a weapon that pushes the envelope that provokes
people, makes people think.”
Most martial artists recognize that the human voice in the form of the liai (spirit shout) is an important part
of defense, yet many don’t know how important it is.
According to legends, at its best the kiai was supposed to be able to incapacitate, maim, or even kill an
opponent. It did this in the same way that a trained singer’s voice can shatter glass. If the shouter can find
the right combination of frequency, timber and volume when he yelled, he could damage the opposition.
The legends also relate that kiai had the power to heal another person as well.
If these results are possible, there are currently no martial arts masters who claim they can achieve them.
It might be impossible to hurt someone physically with the voice alone, but this doesn’t mean that the kiai
can’t become a weapon that any one can use. It can. It can be developed into a very potent psychological
weapon.
To make your kiai an effective psychological weapon, you must develop your overall voice. Now, everyone
has a different kind of voice. Voices are as distinctive and unique as fingerprints. Vocal quality varies from
person to person because the voice is affected by various factors.
26

CONNECTIONS:
1. After reading the excerpt above, make a list of ideas about the use of language and/or the voice
as a weapon. How do ideas travel between people or groups of people? Do you think ideas are
more powerful than physical violence?
2. Consider what the article on The New H.N.I.C. The Death of Civil Rights and the Reign of Hip Hop
had to say about the assimilation of hip hop and the following definitions:
Commercial Hip Hop is a subgenre of hip hop. This music often focuses on the glorification of material
wealth, violence and debauchery. Tends to be extremely popular with record buyers and radio listeners.
Underground Hip Hop is a subgenre of hip hop. This music focuses on returning hip hop to its original
essence. Tends to be very popular with b-boys and b-girls but not popular with the masses.
• What type of hip hop music are you more familiar with?
• Do you think that the mainstreaming of hip hop has in effect made it less more powerful?
• Can you think of a political message that is championed or challenged in a song? Bring in lyrics to
share with you classmates. Deconstruct, or “break down” the political message.
Poetry is not a static art. It evolves in the same way language does.
Slam poetry is a form of performance poetry that occurs within a competitive poetry event, called
a “slam”, at which poets perform their own poems… Slam poetry has always had some degree of
connection to rap music, with both styles of expression involving rhythmically delivered phrases… Many
underground hip hop MCs have drawn influence from slam poetry (including Mos Def, Sage Francis, both
of whom started performing at poetry slams before successful careers as rappers.)
http:www.wordiq.com/cgi-bin/knowledge/lookup.cgi?title=slam_poetry
Connection: After reading the information on slam poetry. What do poetry and song lyrics have in
common? How is that related to Shakespeare?
27

THE PRODUCTION: WHO’S WHO
THE DIRECTOR: MARGARET E. HALL
Margaret E. Hall is an International Director, AEA Stage Manager and Drama Teacher. She
currently works as Assistant to the Artistic Director at Capital Repertory Theatre. Recent
directorial work includes a staged reading of Michael Hollinger’s Hope and Gravity, which
was a part of Capital Repertory Theatre’s Inaugural Next Act New Play Summit! Other
credits include: Circus Olympus; Into The Woods Jr., The Aristocats Kid’s; Peter Pan and
Wendy and The Wizard of Oz. With her company HallWay Productions Margaret has
produced and directed a series of 24 Hour Theatre projects with rounds designed for High
School students and professional artists. She is a proud member of Conflict Relief, the Arab
Iraeli Theatre Collaboration (www.conflictrelief.org). Her skills and training have taken her to
Bali, Scotland, Austria, Russia, England, Romania, and to severl U.S. States. Margaret holds a
BA in Theatre Arts from SUNY New Platz, and an MFA in Theatre Directing from the University of Essex in London.
THE ACTORS
BIANCA STINNEY (SHAYLA)
Bianca is an Albany native. She graduated from the Albany Academy for girls and
subsequently pursued a degree in Theatre and Elementary Education at Barnard College of
Columbia University in the city of New York. Upon her departure of the University, she served
the Albany City School District as a Building Substitute. She believes that “Education is our
Passport to the future” -Malcolm X.
CORNELIUS GEANEY, JR. AEA (WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE)
This is Cornelius’s first time working with the TYA tour and he couldn’t be more excited.
Cornelius attended The University at Albany where he majored in theatre His most recent
credits include the short films Love Lost- NYC and Salle de Bains - NYC. Other credits
include Reflector Lens at the Barrow Group Theatre - NYC, as well as Sisters Rosensweig
and Superior Donuts at Capital Repitory Theatre. Cornelius couldn’t be more pleased work
among such a talented group of artists. He thanks his loved ones for their constant support.
*AEA = Actors Equity Association and it is the union of Actors and Stage Managers.
28

THE PRODUCTION TEAM:
BRANDI KLEIN (STAGE MANAGER)
This is Brandi’s first time working with Capital Rep and she is excited to be apart of this tour. Brandi has worked regionally
doing Skin Deep & The Love List with the Lake George Dinner Theatre. She is looking forward to working with many
talented profesional artists of the area at the 3rd Annual 24hr Theatre Project presented by WAM/ Mop & Co. She is also
a member of AEA.
PETE LEUE (SET DESIGNER)
CHELSEA LEACH (PROPS DESIGNER)
CAROLYN WALKER (COSTUME DESIGNER) Carolyn has designed numerous productions
around upstate New York, including both Race and This Wonderful Life at Capital Repertory Theater in Albany, NY and
Bent at The Know Theater in Binghamton, NY. She holds a degree from Binghamton University in Technical Design for
Theater and has won the Albert Nocciolino Award for Excellence in Theater while attending. She has been working for
Capital Rep for 3 seasons now; 2010-2012 as the Costume Shop Assistant and now as the Costume Shop Manager.
She has had the pleasure of working with many great costume shops throughout New York, including GEVA Theater in
Rochester, Cider Mill Playhouse in Binghamton, and The Mac-Haydn Theater in Chatham.
LUKE KRAUSS (SOUND DESIGNER / ENGINEER)
ELEMENTS OF DESIGN
Designers work within many different confines when designing a show.
• Where is the production physically taking place, what is the stage / venue like?
• Where does the show take place: in a house, an office, a school, the forest, multiple locations,
etc.
• When does the show take place: what time period – 1800’s, 1914, 2013, 2045, etc.; what time of
year is it (does this change during the show)? What time of day is it (does this change during the
show)?
• What is the mood of the show? (Is it a comedy, a tragedy, is it serious or light? Is it a controversial
topic?)
• Who is the show for; adult audiences, youth audiences, both etc.?
• How much money can the designer spend creating their design? What is their budget? What
needs to be purchased, built, repurposed, etc.?
• How long do they have to design and create their design so that it is ready and safe for the
actors?
• What is the director’s concept for the show & how does that affect the designer?
• If the show is a co-production (being done in multiple venues).
• For a touring show, designers must make sure that everything will fit – easily – into the van
transporting their designs (along with the actors and stage manager); and that these elements
can be constructed and deconstructed quickly; as well as making sure that the pieces are durable.
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DESIGNING A SHOW
DESIGNERS WORK WITHIN MANY DIFFERENT CONFINES WHEN DESIGNING A SHOW.
• Where is the production physically taking place, what is the stage & venue like?
• Where does the show take place: in a house, at a school, in the forest, multiple locations, etc.
• When does the show take place: what time period– 1800’s, 1929, 2012, etc. What time of year is it? What time of
day is it?
• What is the mood of the show? (Is it a comedy, a tragedy, is it serious or light?)
• Who is the show for: adult audiences, youth audiences, both etc.?
• How much money can they spend? What is their budget? What needs to be purchased, built, repurposed, etc.?
• How long do they have to design and create their design so that it is ready and safe for the actors?
• What is the Directors concept for the show & how does that affect the designer?
• If the show is a co-production (being done in multiple venues).
EXERCISE: DESIGNING A SHOW
What differences exist between the design world “today,” and in the “days of yore” when
Shakespeare was alive?
Consider all aspects of the design world
Scenery
Lighting
Costumes
Properties
Sound Effects
First: Students should research design elements in the Elizabethan Era and today.
Next: Students should be broken up into groups of 4 (or so), where they share their
information.
Then: Using one of Shakespeare’s plays, ie: Romeo and Juliet, students should work together
to create a modern design for the costumes (or props…) as well as a contrasting design for
the Elizabethan Era.
Finally: Each group should present their designs to the class.
Discuss.
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ADDITIONAL CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Elizabethan Insults
Modern language is rather uninventive when it comes to expletives, connecting itself with a paucity of four letter
equivalents for the range of human distress. But Elizabethans took delight with language, weaving together terms to
form stinging phrases of wit. Use this exercise to introduce the language of Shakespeare and the concept of conflict.
Combine one word from each column, prefaced with “Thou.” (Choosing the final word from column C first will help
you know what the center of your insult will be.)
A B C
artless base-court apple-john
bawdy bat-fowling baggage
beslubbering beef-witted barnacle
bootless beetle-headed bladder
churlish boil-brained boar-pig
cockered clapper-clawed bug-bear
clouted clay-brained bum-bailey
craven common-kissing canker-blossom
currish crook-pated clack-dish
dank dismal-dreaming clodpole
dissembling dizzy-eyed coxcomb
droning doghearted codpiece
errant dread-bolted death-token
fawninig earth-vexing dewberry
fobbing elf-skinned flap-dragon
frothy fat-kidneyed flax-wench
gleeking fen-sucked flirt-gill
goatish flap-mouthed foot-licker
gorbellied fly-bitten giglet
infectious full-gorged harpy
jarring guts-gripping hugger-mugger
lumpish hell-hated maggot-pie
mammering ill-breading malt-worm
mewling milk-livered miscreant
puking onion-eyed moldwarp
rank plume-plucked pig-nut
ruttish rump-fed runyon
spongy seep-biting strumpet
tottering tardy-gaited varlet
villainous tickle-brained vassal
weedy urchin-snouted wagtail
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ADDITIONAL CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES CONT...
With students standing in a circle, and all with a crafted insult, two students enter the center and face each other. One
at a time, they deliver their insult using as much vocal power and expression as possible. The circle decides who was
the most insulting and this student then challenges another to step into the center and try to win the insult battle.
Have students articulate why the insult is powerful, considering word choice, body language, and tone of voice. This is
also a great exercise for students to work on enunciation and projection.
2. Status Games: Many different status games can be found by googling.
Use status exercises to emphasize how social status/class can have a very powerful effect on how you interact with
others. Point out how individuals justify their behavior by attributing what they do (or don’t do) as appropriate to their
position or status. Students should leave these exercises with an understanding of just how powerful an effect status
can have, often controlling how we perceive ourselves and others, and limiting how we can respond to those around us
depending on our status in relation to theirs.
The Deck of Cards Game
Each student gets a playing card without looking at it. They hold it; face out, on their forehead so that everyone
but them is able to see it. Next, they walk around the room greeting people with respect to their status (Ace high,
two low) while trying to figure out what they themselves are. After three minutes, stop and have them sit in a circle
(card still stuck to their forehead.) Have them guess what their card is and why (what clues did they gather from the
way people treated them.) This exercise can then be reversed so that the actor knows what his/her card is and acts
accordingly and the group needs to figure out what card they have by the way they behave.
Discussion
Ask students for some common contemporary examples of persons in our society with high status (the president,
celebrities, rich people, etc.), with low status (the homeless, drug addicts, poor people). Explain that status/class is not
necessarily fair or right, but in every society there are folks with high, middle, and low status. Then ask them who in
Shakespeare’s play might have high, middle and low status. Provide specific examples and explain why characters are
of a given rank/status and how that affects their behavior. Point out to students that during Shakespeare’s time, the
only people with any significant status in England were British-born, Christian, upper-class males.
Have kids walk around the room and pretend that they are people with a given status. Randomly call out high-status
characteristics (i.e. rich, beautiful, tall, ugly, short, fat, thin, etc.) and tell kids to explore how this might affect their
movement. Invite them to explore the movement in their bodies first and then try greeting others.
3. Investing words
This activity is based on a longer exercise developed by Kristin Linklater. It is designed to give actors the experience of
speaking while connecting words to personal images, experiences, and emotions.
STEP 1 – RELAXATION
Invite students to sit in a relaxed but supported posture, so they can breathe deeply into their diaphragms. Encourage
them to take several deep breaths on their own pace, breathing in through the nose, then exhaling completely through
the mouth. Tell them to really push all the air out until there is no air left in the body before they take the next breath.
Next, invite them to breathe in and sigh out with an “aaahhh” sound. Students may be self-conscious about making
sound in the classroom, but you can encourage them to think about releasing the tensions of the day. “Breathe in
and sigh out all the homework you have to do tonight.” “Breathe in and sigh out all the sit-ups you will do at practice
later.”
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STEP 2 – GIVING VOICE
Tell them to keep breathing in a normal relaxed way and to keep their eyes closed. In a moment you will write a word
on the blackboard. When you tell them, they will open their eyes and say the word in a normal voice. Then you will
give them instructions and ask them to say the word again. Give tem clear cues about when to open and close their
eyes, and when to speak. Remind tem to stay focused on the word and to let go of all other thoughts and distractions.
This exercise should move quickly enough to keep students interest, but slowly enough that they have a chance to
visualize each instruction before they speak.
1. LOVE – open your eyes – speak – “LOVE” – close your eyes
Who do you love most? – speak – “LOVE”
Who do you wish loved you? – speak – “LOVE”
Who would you love you go out with – speak – “LOVE”
What’s the best thing anyone has ever done for you? – speak – “LOVE”
2. SEA – open you eyes – speak – “SEA” – close your eyes
What color is it? – speak – “SEA”
How does it feel on a hot day? -- speak – “SEA”
Is it calm or stormy? – speak – “SEA”
When were you last by the sea? – speak – “SEA”
3. POWER – open your eyes – speak – “POWER” – close your eyes
Where do you feel it in your body? – speak – “POWER”
What makes you feel powerful? – speak – “POWER”
Who is more powerful than you? – speak – “POWER”
What would you do to get power? – speak – “POWER”
4. EARTH – open your eyes – speak – “EARTH” -- close your eyes
What does it smell like? – speak – “EARTH”
What’s it like to put your hands in? – speak – “EARTH”
What does it look like from a spaceship? – speak –“EARTH”
What does it feel like to lie on? – speak – “EARTH”
5. PLAY – open your eyes – speak – “PLAY” – close your eyes
Who do you play with? – speak – “PLAY”
What do children look like when they are playing? – speak – “PLAY”
What sounds do you make when you play? – speak – “PLAY”
What is your favorite game? -- speak – “PLAY”
STEP 3 – OBSERVATION
Tell students to take a few more breaths to release the last word, slowly open their eyes and look around the room.
Invite them to share their experiences of the exercise. Did the way they said each word change depending on what
they were thinking about? Was there any image tat they felt or saw particularly clearly? What physical sensations did
they experience? Was there ever a moment were the sound of their own voice surprise them? Were they aware of
others speaking? What did each word sound like? Did the words sound different from one another? Did the whole
group say each word in similar or different ways?
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Books….
RESOURCES FOR TEACHERS
A Dictionary of Who, What, and Where in Shakespeare: A Comprehensive Guide to Shakespeare’s Plays,
Characters, and Contemporaries, by Sandra Clark (Editor)
Coined by Shakespeare: Words and Meanings First Used by the Bard, by Stanley Malless
Evoking Shakespeare, by Peter Brook
Flappers 2 Rapper: American Youth Slang, by Tom Dalzell
Freeing Shakespeare’s Voice: The Actor’s Guide to Talking the Text, by Kristin Linklater
Love’s Fire: Seven New Plays Inspired by Seven Shakespearean Sonnets, by William Finn, John Guare, Eric
Bogosian, Marsha Norman, Tony Kusher, etc.
Shakespeare’s Insults: Educating Your Wit, by William Shakespeare & Wayne F. Hill (Contributor)
Shakespeare For Dummies, by John Doyle and Ray Lischner
Vibe’s Hip-Hop Divas
The Vibe History of Hip-Hop By Alan Light.
Shakespeare is Hip-Hop, by Flocabulary. Available at www.flocabulary.com.
Websites for more information and exercises …
www.focabulary.com
http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/
http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/
http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/
http://ohhla.com
http://www.shakespeare-globe.org/vortualtour/
http://www.bardweb.net
http://www.shakespeare.com
http://www.shakespearehigh.com/library/surfbard/
http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/lambtales/LAMBTALE.HTM
http://www.folger.edu/education/teaching.htm
http://www.britannic.com/shakespeare/index2.html
http://www.holycross.edu/departments/theatre/projects/isp/measure/teachguide/teach_soliloquy.html
http://www.holycross.edu/departments/theatre/projects/isp/recipe/
Additional Resources include: Wikipedia.com and The Theatre Works Study Guide… www.theatreworks.org
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RESOURCES CONSULTED
WEBSITES:
www.wikipedia.com
Other:
Theatre Works Study Guide – This is the theatre company which originally produced Shakespeare: The
Remix and shares a common vision with Capital Repertory Theatre, to educate children through the
theatre arts and encourage students to express themselves onstage! Theatre Works is located in Palo Alto,
CA. www.theatreworks.org
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TEACHER EVALUATION
SHAKESPEARE: THE REMIX
FILL THIS OUT & GET 2 FREE TICKETS!
Your feedback helps us to constantly improve programming and attract additional underwriting. Please
take a moment to fill out this form. You are encouraged to make multiple copies so that all of the teachers
in your group may respond. All teachers who submit a completed evaluation will be given a pair of free
tickets to a future Capital Rep production.
1. How would you rate the quality of today’s performance?
Excellent Good Fair Poor
2. Did attending the performance assist you in addressing classroom curriculum?
Very Much Somewhat Not At All N/A
3. Were the on-line study materials useful in preparing students and deepening their experience?
Very Much Somewhat Not At All N/A
4. Please check all that apply:
Today’s performance price was affordable for my school.
My school required a subsidy in order to afford today’s performance.
My school would provide performances for more students, more often, if additional funds were available.
5. Any additional information/comments welcome, please attach them to this evaluation.
Name:___________________________ School:_______________________________
Phone:___________________________ E-Mail:________________________________
The completed form may be submitted by e-mail
mhall@capitalrep.org or askiff@proctors.org
or by mail Capital Rep Education Department, P.O. Box 1985, Albany, NY 12201-1985
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CAPITAL REP’S MISSION IN ACTION!
CREATING AN AUTHENTIC LINK TO THE COMMUNITY WE SERVE…
EDUCATION AND OUTREACH
Education and Outreach are key components of Capital Rep’s mission, “to create an authentic link to the community
we serve.” Through a wide range of programs, Capital Rep strives “to provide the Capital Region with theatre
programming which inspires a greater understanding of the human condition” and helps “to develop future audiences
by instilling the notion that theatre is a vital part of the cultural life of all vibrant cities.”
PROGRAMS FOR STUDENTS
CLASSICS ON STAGE
In 1995, Capital Rep renewed its commitment to Education with the expansion of the Student Matinee Program.
Performances of most of the theatre’s professional productions are scheduled during the school day with dramatically
discounted prices for area students to allow for greater accessibility. Each season, one play is designated as Classics on
Stage, for its direct connections with curriculum.
ON-THE-GO!
In order to accommodate an even larger student audience and to develop relationships with schools unable to attend
the matinee performances, Capital Rep developed the On The Go! School Tour Program. These specially adapted
professional productions are designed to play to students on-site in schools. Last season, more than 16,000 students
attended performances of Pure Poe an original work about Edgar Allen Poe. All On The Go! and Student Matinee
performances feature Post-Show Discussions and Production Study Guides (available on-line in PDF format!) to provide
a cultural, artistic and historical context for the production.
CAST
New this season is Capital Rep’s Cultivating Arts & Students Together (CAST) Program. Students go behind the scenes,
working as ushers and theatre ambassadors throughout the season, earning credit for their volunteer community
service and learning how Capital Rep creates top-notch professional productions. (Ages 14-19)
STAR
Since 1997, Capital Rep has been putting kids in the spotlight! Through Summer Theatre At the Rep (STAR), teens work with
professional theatre artists to develop their own original theatre piece, which is then premiered on the Capital Rep stage.
ACTING INTENSIVE
New this summer is Capital Rep’s Acting Intensive. Students take part in a variety of theatre classes taught by industry
professionals. This weeklong intensive is geared towards helping students hone their craft (acting skills) and learn the art
of auditioning and interviewing. (Ages 15-19)
ARTIST IN RESIDENCY PROGRAMS
Capital Rep works in conjunction with school educators to bring highly trained teaching artists to work in extended
residency within the classroom. Opportunities to embed the theatrical experience into the curriculum are available for
teachers and students for every work in our 2012-2013 Education Season.
CAREER DEVELOPMENT
Capital Rep is dedicated to helping to build the next generation of theatre professionals. The theatre’s Professional
Apprenticeship Program provides year-long or summer-long paid apprenticeships for young people beginning a career
in the performing arts and arts education.
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LET CAPITAL REP COME TO
YOU THIS YEAR!
Book Our NEWLY EXPANDED ON-THE-GO! Tour and experience professional theatre right in your school!
Tour Dates • April 8 - May 18, 2013
Call Education Program Manager, Agnes Kapusta Skiff
518.382.3884 x168
WE WILL COME TO YOU!
Eliminate bus costs, travel time and logistical concerns
while maximizing the effectiveness of arts in education
dollars by bringing professional theatre directly
into your school! Choose between two of Capital
Repertory Theatre’s most popular On-The-Go! shows.
Make your reservation TODAY!
A FRIEND OF A FRIEND: TALES OF THE
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD FROM THE CAPITAL
REGION
By Maggie Mancinelli-Cahill & Jill Rafferty-Weinisch
A refreshing tale told in the living newspaper style that puts a light on the
importance of the Capital Region and Upstate New York in the Underground
Railroad movement. Students meet Steven and Harriet Myers, editors of the
abolitionist Northern Star newspaper –the freeman Solomon Northup who
Friend of a Friend: Kevin Craig West, Erica Tryon, Nelson Rock
describes his kidnapping from Saratoga Springs and 12 year journey to return
home – the Mott sisters, Quaker abolition activists who lived right in Albany – and variety of other local heroes. Based
on New York State archival, documents FRIEND OF A FRIEND brings to life real people who made a real difference in
the troubled times that led to America’s Civil War. Recommended for grades 4-8.
SHAKESPEARE THE REMIX
By Aaron Jafferis & Gihieh Lee
Iambic pentameter meets hip hop! Shakespeare: The Remix, by awardwinning,
hip-hop poet, Aaron Jafferis, provides a great way to introduce – and
inspire – students to the power of the Bard. A troubled teenager assigned
to detention is shocked when who shows up but Shakespeare’s ghost! This
45-minute battle of wills puts a savvy, tough urban teen in a head-to-head
confrontation with the Bard that illuminates the plots of Hamlet, Romeo and
Shakespeare The Remix: Brian McManamon, Sarita Covington
Juliet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream through comparisons of hip hop
poetry and Shakespeare’s verse. Witness the Bard learning hip hop from his teenage skeptic – and the skeptic learning
a thing or two from the master wordsmith - as they perform famous scenes from Shakespeare’s great classics, sharing
the relevance of the stories and magic of the language with each other. A wonderful way to engage novice students
– and re-engage older students – with the expansive world of Shakespeare and poetry! Capital Rep’s most popular Onthe-Go
tour returns this spring. Recommended for grades 5-12.
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2012-13 EDUCATION SPONSORS
As an important part of our mission, each year Capital Rep delivers exciting live theatre to
more than 20,000 young people at the theatre and in more than 100 schools throughout
the Capital Region. Capital Repertory Theatre gratefully acknowledges the generous
contributors who help to make our programs a success!
2012-2013
MARQUEE SPONSOR
CLASSICS ON STAGE
SEASON SPONSOR
LEAD EDUCATION SPONSOR
The Capital Repertory Theatre
season is made possible in
part with public funds from
The New York State Council
on the Arts, a State Agency.
EDUCATION SPONSORS
NYSUT
Price Chopper
LEAD ON-THE-GO! SPONSORS
Pitney Bowes Software
Stewart’s Shops
EDUCATION ON-THE-GO! SPONSORS
CDPHP
CSArch
STAR SPONSOR
Cohoes Savings Foundation
FOUNDATIONS
Lucille A. Herold Charitable Trust
The Michael Tuch Foundation
The Picotte Family Foundation
The Sidney & Beatrice Albert Foundation
Attend another Capital Repertory Theatre 2012-13 Student Matinee • 518.382.3884 x139
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