Have you ever heard of Shakespeare Week?
What? You haven’t? Really?
Well, don’t worry; until this year, we hadn’t either. Nobody had. That’s because it’s a new celebration begun just this year by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. It was celebrated for the first time ever this past week, March 17-21, 2014, by 3,000 schools all over the U.K., and one school that we know of in the United States. We are the one school! We joined the festivities related to the Bard this past week, and we’re not done yet. We’re going to keep going until we celebrate his 450th birthday, which is on April 23rd.
Photo Credit: floato via Compfight
In order to commemorate the life of the man who most influenced English literature, we have read Hamlet, watched video clips of the “To be or not to be” soliloquy (including a farce on Gilligan), created new words, hurled Shakespearean insults, studied the Bard’s biography, completed word games, memorized lines, and virtually visited Stratford-on-Avon. On our last day of school before our Easter break, we plan to party hardy with the Bard, making his 450th birthday his best ever.
…there was a star danced, and under that was I born. (Much Ado About Nothing, II,i, 335)
In honor of this event, we’d like to Skype another class for our first annual Shakespeare Challenge game. We’ll ask your class questions, and you ask us. The winner gets a prize.
Do you dare to accept our challenge?
Mercutio: A challenge, on my life.
Benvolio: Romeo will answer it.
Mercutio: Any man that can write may answer a letter.
Benvolio: Nay, he will answer the letter’s master, how he dares, being dared.
Romeo and Juliet II, iv, 8-12
Answer our post with a comment letting us know if you are up to a challenge on April 16th, sometime between 9 and 11 am, Eastern Standard Time.
Until then, visit some of our Shakespeare posts from April 2013 or try some of the sites above.
What did you learn about our friend Will Shakespeare?