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Introduction

As the camera moves rapidly from one scene to another, viewers are caught up in the excitement, pleasure, and energy of the actors making the film. Their conversations about character motivation and the meanings of certain phrases raise important issues for students to explore. By shifting quickly between rehearsal scenes and interviews with ordinary people on the streets of New York and London, the film introduces students to a Shakespeare who speaks to all people, not just a select few, dispelling the notion that the plays of Shakespeare have no place in the modern world.

This educational guide gives students an opportunity to explore their own attitudes toward Shakespeare, to come to grips with his themes, and to engage in imaginative language and performing activities.

Program Objectives

1. To explore concepts and themes from Looking for Richard.
2. To enhance students' understanding of and pleasure in Shakespeare in general and in Richard III in particular.
3. To enhance students' sensitivity to the imaginative uses of language, in both Shakespeare's time and our own.
4. To introduce students to the creative challenges and complexities of interpreting and performing a play.
5. To strength students' research skills and offer performing and creative writing opportunities.

Target Audience

How to Use This Guide

Activity One
Run for the Hills--It's Shakespeare

This activity gives students the opportunity to explore their preconceived notions about Shakespeare before seeing the film and measure them against their reactions after viewing the film and discussing the play. By interviewing others, they will be able to measure the degree to which Shakespeare's plays and characters have permeated contemporary life and decide for themselves if Shakespeare has a place in today's classroom.

Answers: Part B,3. Romeo, ill-fated lover in Romeo and Juliet; Iago, the "ancient" or attendant in Othello; the handkerchief, planted by Iago to deceive Othello; "To be or not to be," Hamlet's musing on death; three witches, a chorus-like trio in Macbeth, who foresee events.

• Have students research the War of the Roses and trace the lines of the Lancasters and the Yorks.
• Remind students that Shakespeare remains an elusive, controversial figure and that there are those who maintain that "his" plays actually were written by someone else. Have a student present to the class his or her findings on this issue.
• Have students do a research project on the theater of Shakespeare's time, in which they learn about theater companies, especially those in which all the actors were children or all the actors were males. Ask them to consider how the physical conditions of the theater, the prevalence of child actors or the absence of female actors may have affected the performances and interpretations of the plays.

Activity Two
Richard III Is Alive and Well and Living on Melrose Place

Part A. Richard is manipulative, bitter, and mad for power. He is clever enough to "read" others and use them to his advantage. Ask students to think about the role of his physical deformities in emphasizing his "moral" deformities. They might be interested to know the "real" Richard III was not at all deformed. Ask them why Shakespeare used "poetic license" to change Richard's physical appearance. To complete the activity students might list another Richard (Richard Nixon), fictional characters like J.R. of "Dallas" or Kimberly of "Melrose Place," the Menendez brothers or Hitler. Analyzing the behavior of these figures and comparing them with Richard III will show students that such traits as lust for power, greed, and selfishness are timeless.

Part B. This activity challenges students to study Richard's opening soliloquy closely, observing the ways in which Richard reveals himself immediately to the audience. After students have seen the film, encourage them to read the soliloquy aloud. This will help them grasp the rhythm of iambic pentameter. For an additional challenge, ask them to compose their own soliloquies in iambic pentameter.

• According to historians, the "real" Richard was neither evil nor deformed; a number of works have been written in his defense, including a popular mystery novel by Josephine Tey titled The Daughter of Time. Have students do their own research to come up with an accurate historical portrait of Richard.
• The play Richard III is based on a real person, although, as stated above, Shakespeare distorted Richard for his own ends. Does an author have the "right" to do whatever he or she wants with a historical personage? Have students discuss the validity of changing or distorting the facts when basing a work of the imagination on an actual historical figure. Have them include in their discussion such contemporary examples as the films of Oliver Stone (Nixon, JFK) and the novel Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow.
• Have students discuss the following related questions: Is Richard III a tragedy? Is Richard a tragic hero? Have students read Aristotle's definitions of tragedy and the tragic hero before they begin their discussion. They might broaden the discussion by considering whether there is room in today's world for a tragic hero, either in fiction or real life, and by doing research on the concept of the anti-hero.

Activity Three
If I'd Meant That, I'd Have Said It

Part A. By collecting and analyzing examples of figurative language, students can distinguish between the literal and the figurative and recognize simile and metaphor. They might explore the value of speaking metaphorically: Why not come right out and say what one means? Early in the film, a panhandler tells the interviewer that reading Shakespeare teaches people to think and to express their feelings. Ask students to discuss whether figurative language expresses more feeling than straightforward, factual description.

Part B. This exercise helps students recognize the ways in which contemporary English can be stretched, played with, and enjoyed. It encourages them to listen more closely to differences in language and to appreciate the creativity with which "ordinary" people communicate with one another. They should pay particular attention to certain words and phrases used in their own social circles. Collecting newspaper headlines and listening to sportscasters should convince them that figurative language is part of their everyday life -- it does not only show up in Shakespeare. (Have them jot down, for instance, how many different ways sportscasters have for announcing that one team has beaten another.)

Part C. This exercise reinforces the notion that Shakespeare's characters are universal and can be transported readily from one historical period to another. Students should be reminded that West Side Story is based on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, that Kiss Me Kate derives from The Taming of the Shrew and that Jane Smiley's novel A Thousand Acres and the Japanese film Ran are based on King Lear.

Part D. In this activity, students mirror the actors in the film. They come to realize that putting on a play is a complex creative endeavor that involves making many difficult decisions. For example, in choosing the first scene between Richard and Lady Anne, they will have to come to terms with how, under the circumstances, the young widow could succumb so readily to Richard's "charms".

• Have students experiment with Shakespearean language by reading several lines aloud; they might try putting the emphasis on different words in each sentence to see if the meaning of the line changes.
• Shakespeare has been the source of literary humor over the years. Have a student read aloud Mark Twain's parody of Shakespearean soliloquies in Huckleberry Finn or suggest they view Renaissance Man, a film in which Danny DeVito teaches Hamlet to a group of students with limited abilities. Introduce them to ShrinkLits by Maurice Sagoff, in which "Seventy of the world's towering classics [are] cut down to size." After hearing a few of the selections, students might like to compose a ShrinkLit for Richard III.
• Assign students to find two or three versions of Richard III (on film, recordings, or as stage performances). Have them listen to or observe the different versions, analyze the differences, and defend their own preferences.

Extended Activities

• Have a student read and report on Shakespeare Our Contemporary by Jan Kott, in which the critic views Richard III primarily in political terms.
• Assign a student to do research on the relationship between the politics of the reign of Elizabeth I and the political events in Richard III.
• Have two students debate Ben Johnson's declaration, "Shakespeare was not of an age, but for all time."

Additional Reading:

Copyright ©1996, Youth Media International; used with permission.