ShakesFear and how to Cure it: A Handbook for Teaching Shakespeare

This book is the new definitive guide to teaching students to love Shakespeare. ShakesFear proceeds from a very simple premise: William Shakespeare's plays were written for audiences to enjoy and not for readers to trudge through. Noted Shakespeare scholar Ralph Cohen's life is devoted to the notion that only through performance does the depth and complexity of Shakespeare's world comes to life. In this book, Dr. Cohen walks teachers through the process of making Shakespeare fun in the classroom by staging scenes and plays. He uses tricks and "ploys," arguments, and hypothetical questions to tease students into falling in love with the characters first, then the plays, and eventually the literature. - Publisher.