Thrusting Greatness Upon Television 3(Series of 4)

Twelfth Night, 1.1.1-15

Using Orsino's speech and the skits devised in the previous lessons, the students will create a model video incorporating dialogue from the text.

This lesson will take a 45 minute class period, with possible video redubbing for homework.

Folger edition of Twelfth Night
Available in Folger print edition and Folger Digital Texts

Orsino's speech handout 2

1. Conduct a brief review of the opening scene that the students read for homework. Familiarity with the language is more important than complete understanding at this point.

2. Play the students the 45 second youtube clip of John Belushi in Animal House, available here (This clip is completely school appropriate-just make sure that no inappropriate user comments are visible)

3. After viewing the clip, have students refer to the Orsino speech handout as they watch the clip for a second time, this time without sound.

4. Have students underline words, passages or lines that they think they could squeeze into the scene and that would function reasonably well.

5. Play the clip one more time and in groups, have students prepare to overdub the clip using Orsino's speech. This can be done as a class, or if the technology is available, the clip can be placed on a common network or file-sharing device, and students can use Audacity or iMovie to overdub the clip individually. Remind students that they can rearrange the lines however they wish, as long as they do not change the words, add their own words or otherwise alter the meaning.

The original meaning of Shakespeare's text will inevitably be distorted and taken out of context. However, is the language being used effectively within the context of the scene? Are students grasping nuances and subtexts in Orsino's speech?