Comedy & the Bard: Exploring Much Ado About Nothing

Grades 9-12

"For there was never yet philosopher that could endure the toothache patiently." What makes something a comedy? In this class, students will explore Shakespeare’s classic comedy: Much Ado About Nothing. Each week, students will need to come prepared with an act of the play read and some ideas to explore within our session. We will focus on talking about our own interpretations and reactions to the text. We will also, however, go in depth analytically, talking about character motivations, symbolism, philosophical questions, and language usage. Students will gain experience tackling one of the great literary authors in history. They will also practice speaking about a text intelligently, deciding their opinion of a text and being able to back up that opinion with evidence from the text.