Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

Seeing a play brings the whole story to life. Chairman Michael Farris talks with his guest Deborah Taylor-Hough about experiencing Shakespeare today on Home School Heartbeat.

Mike:


Debbie, after reading Charles and Mary Lamb's version of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," you read the actual play with your kids. What did you do next?


Deborah:


Well, Shakespeare didn't really write his plays just to be read out of books. So he wrote them to be performed on stage by live actors with an audience. So we borrowed a videotape from the library of a New York Shakespearean festival's production of the play. And we couldn't find a video of one of the other plays we wanted to see so we checked out an audio tape version.


Mike:


How did your children react to these presentations?


Deborah:


Well, the children loved the video of the "Midsummer Night's Dream." My seven-year-old son even watched it several times on his own just for fun. Even my three-year-old was able to follow the basic plot of the story. Watching the video made all of us so excited about the idea of seeing a live production of the play that we beginning to feel like it was an old friend. The audio tape version was a little harder to enjoy, so I really recommend videos of the plays if possible.


Mike:


This sounds like something moms could easily do. Tomorrow we'll talk about your experience at a live Shakespeare performance. I'm Mike Farris.