The Merry Wives of Windsor: The 30-Minute Shakespeare
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Performing Arts
The Merry Wives of Windsor: The 30-Minute Shakespeare Details
About the Author Nick Newlin has performed a juggling and variety act for international audiences for 23 years. Since 1996, he has conducted an annual Play Directing residency affiliated with the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC. Nick has a BA from Harvard University with Honors 1982 and an MA in Theater from The University of Maryland with an emphasis on Play Directing. Read more
Reviews
I am using this script to produce THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR at the high school where I teach. The author did a great job of boiling the show down to an essence while still retaining Shakespeare's language and showcasing the characters in four representative scenes which tell the story in a economical and easy-to-follow manner.From a teacher's perspective, this book was a great way to introduce students to a Shakespeare play they otherwise might never have encountered in high school. I taught it in four lessons, using the notes in the book as supporting material. We also watched a few scenes from a production of Verdi's FALSTAFF, a scene from MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO (partially based on HENRY IV, and including a Falstaff-like character), and a scene from Kenneth Branagh's HENRY IV to compare the "historical" Falstaff to the "comedic" Falstaff. Then we watched a bit of I LOVE LUCY and compared Lucy & Ethel to the Merry Wives. We used all of these influences to create a 30-minute production in class, and will present it to the public at our county's Shakespeare Festival at the end of the month. All of this was much more fun working with the adaptation than it might have been if i had tackled the full script. Students who especially enjoyed it have already investigated the full script on their own--again, something I doubt they would be doing in high school if they hadn't had this introduction.I strongly recommend this book (and the rest of the series) to educators who want to introduce a variety of Shakespeare plays to their students in a limited amount of time. Also excellent for Thespian One Act Play festivals. I would welcome any further inquiry about this script.