Digital Shakespeare was created in July 1999 at Black Hills State
University through a grant from Governor Janklow's Teaching with Technology Award program.
Under the terms of the award, the project was designed to bring technology into my Shakespeare classroom and
to encourage collaboration between the university and public schools in South Dakota.
In October 1999 my colleague, digital media expert Paul Kopco, joined the project under a faculty development grant from BHSU
and the Bush Foundation.
For many students, Shakespeare is neither real nor accessible.
Technology can help these students discover an authentic relationship with Shakespeare.
Acting, directing, or helping in other ways to produce scenes from the plays can generate an interactive, lively educational
experience.
In summer 1999, student volunteers performed roles from A Midsummer
Night's Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, and
Hamlet. All this effort was not for stage performance, but for the taping
of digital scenes that have appeared on the Internet. During the past year, students in my Shakespeare class, along
with local high school students, have created additional digital scenes from A Midsummer
Night's Dream, as well as a new scene from Twelfth Night. This fall my
Shakespeare students will choose to create digital performances from among Richard
III, Henry IV, Much Ado About Nothing, The Merchant of
Venice, and The Tempest.
To give my students the experience of audience response, last June 21,
Digital Shakespeare presented a live and digital performance for the Advanced Placement Institute in English Literature at BHSU.
The program included songs from Shakespeare's plays, the ghost scene from Hamlet
(I.v.9-108), two interpretations of Kate (The Taming of the Shrew, V.ii.136-168), the reuniting of Viola and Sebastian from
Twelfth Night (V.i.226-263), dramatic readings of sonnets, and a montage of
famous lines.
While public presentation, both in digital video and live formats, has a
certain appeal, Digital Shakespeare is really designed for viewing on the personal computer by an audience of one person.
Moving from the stage to the computer screen, the scenes establish an intimate relationship between play and audience, more like an
enhanced reading of the text. Single scenes appear to work best, both for students
learning their parts and for the real limits in screen size and storage media for the digital technology.
For high school and college students, overcoming their fear of Shakespeare and gaining access to his rich language is gained through full immersion and participation in performing his plays--in effect becoming the text from within the play as characters. Students rehearse brief one-three minute segments from the plays they study, working collaboratively to design the set, costumes, special effects, and interpretations, until the scene and its characters are internalized within each participant. Collaborating within the context of the scene, the actors develop a sense of audience both between themselves and toward the viewer at the personal computer, who might be the students' families and friends or a broader audience on the Internet.
As students act out scenes for digital video performance, they are joined
by more technical students who assist in the editing and rendering of the digital scenes for Internet and CD-ROM production.
Nearly immediate feedback of the shootings provides students with opportunities for
critiquing their performance, as well as a sense of their digital selves projected into the medium.
In the process, students gain a direct appreciation and understanding of
Shakespeare--his language, stagecraft, themes and all the elements comprising the text.
Sharing their performance with other students via the Internet and in the classroom, students improve their
collaborative learning skills. At the same time, they improve their critical thinking as they reflect on their
interpretations of the written text.
This approach to Shakespeare, together with close reading of the
written text, examination of the critical issues, and exploration of larger themes, can indeed lead to improved student learning.
Students construct their own learning through authentic experience. As they move
back and forth from text-based to computer-based approaches, students encounter "the undiscover'd country" beyond the classroom that
will enrich their learning and their lives. This intensely personal encounter with Shakespeare is made even more meaningful in the
social context of collaborating with other students to produce a dramatic scene.
I invite colleagues in the public schools, colleges, and universities to
contact me for further information. Technical assistance and advice is also available should colleagues wish to start their own digital projects.
(My e-mail: rogerochse@bhsu.edu) Many of my students are future
English and language arts teachers, and their experience in collaborating with public school students in creating digital scenes can
have a long-term impact on the teaching of literature. Their experiences, together with those of my students, are recorded on the Digital
Shakespeare website (http://www.bhsu.edu/rochse/digitalshakespeare/).
As Marshall McLuhan states, all media as extensions of ourselves serve to provide
new transforming vision and awareness." With Shakespeare linked to digital video technology, teachers of English can help create this new
vision.
Dr. Roger Ochse, Associate Professor of English at Black Hills State
University, is the author of numerous articles on Shakespeare, writing pedagogy, and critical
thinking. He may be reached at rogerochse@bhsu.edu
or 605-642-6386.