Mount Vernon Community Children’s Theatre opens Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing” on February 8th, running for five performances through February 16th. But WHY would a children’s theatre company choose a Shakespearean play, and WHY would I take my child to see Shakespeare?
In How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare, acclaimed playwright Ken Ludwig provides the answers and offers the tools we need to instill an understanding, and a love, of Shakespeare’s works in our children.
Knowing Shakespeare in depth has profound implications for our children. It means that they can begin to view life through a different lens, using the questions that Shakespeare raises in his plays as a point of reference as they learn to form their own opinions. What does Much Ado About Nothing tell us about bearing false witness? What does Twelfth Night tell us about the relationship between brothers and sisters? What does Hamlet tell us about the anxiety we feel when someone dies?
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In addition, Shakespeare articulates emotions that help children understand the stresses of their daily lives, Mr. Ludwig explains, “From the beginning, I had a number of additional goals in mind in teaching my children Shakespeare. One was to give them the tools to read Shakespeare’s works with intelligence for the rest of their lives. On the simplest level, this will enrich their lives and give them a lifetime of pleasure. Another goal was to expose them to literature of such universal depth and worth that it would inspire them to want to achieve great things as they marched forward into maturity. I have staked my life as a writer on the proposition that the arts make a difference in how we see the world and how we conduct our lives—how we view charity to our neighbors and justice to our communities—and Shakespeare, as the greatest artist in the history of our civilization, has worlds to teach us as long as we have the tools we need to understand him.”
William Shakespeare’s plays are among the great bedrocks of Western civilization and contain the finest writing of the past 450 years. From Jane Austen to The Godfather, many of the best novels, plays, poetry, and films in the English language produced since Shakespeare’s death in 1616 are heavily influenced by Shakespeare’s stories, characters, language, and themes. In a sense, his works are a kind of Bible for the modern world, bringing us together intellectually and spiritually. Hamlet, Juliet, Macbeth, Ophelia, and a vast array of other singular Shakespearean characters have become the archetypes of our consciousness. To know some Shakespeare provides a head start in life.
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Join MVCCT for “Much Ado About Nothing” and begin the process of introducing your children to Shakespeare, and revisit him yourself. Or maybe find him for the first time yourself; it is never too early or too late fall in love with these masterful works.
Much Ado about Nothing
WHEN: February 8, 14, & 15 - @7:30pm & February 9 & 16 - @3:00pm
WHERE: Heritage Presbyterian Church 8503 Fort Hunt Road, Alexandria, VA
TICKETS: $12.00 at the door
Facebook Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/632898623434431/
WEBSITE: mvcct.org
About the Show:
Originally published in the 1600’s with the main characters returning from war, director Heather Sanderson brings a fresh, updated version to the stage as she takes MVCCT’s Much Ado About Nothing into 1982 Italy as the characters return from the World Cup!
Much Ado About Nothing is generally considered one of Shakespeare’s best comedies, because it combines elements of robust hilarity with more serious meditations on honor, shame, and court politics. Claudio and Hero are young, in love and getting married. Beatrice and Benedick are older, single and can’t stand each other. As friends and family gather for the wedding, hidden desires, jealousies and mischievous schemes threaten to keep the bride and groom from the altar. Will young love prevail, or will another romance bloom instead? One thing is certain – as long as there are men, women and passion there’s always “much ado.” This is a joyful comedy that ends with multiple marriages and no deaths!
