Canterbury Tales at the Shakespeare Tavern

I sat down to enjoy this production loaded with the remnants of our discussion earlier in the day. The one question I really wanted to answer for myself was, "Why live theater?" (Do we need to cultivate an appreciation for live theater in our students? Why is live theater better than watching a movie?) Well, amidst some raucous laughter, I found my answer. It's fun! And a completely different fun than watching a funny movie. Why do people go to concerts when they could just watch the music video? It's fun! It's about the sense of community you have when you're there - that "energy" we kept talking about.

So, where does it fit into the classroom? into the curriculum? It is definitely one of our standards. But what exactly am I trying to teach them - how to read a play? how to perform a play? how to write one? how to appreciate one? all of the above? And what is the purpose - how will that knowledge help them in their future careers?

Here's what I've got so far: 1) Reading a play is an excellent way to teach close reading, subtext, reading between the lines. 2) Performance is a part of life - any customer service job requires it, it is the essence of courtships, and it is a must in job interviews. Therefore, teaching students to perform is a good thing. 3) In teaching a student to write a play, we can really focus on diction and how it creates tone. By writing plays, students will see that once a line is written, it is open to interpretation, and students need to understand that aspect of writing. It is extremely important when creating business correspondence. 4) I'm not sure it is possible to teach apprecation. Some students will like it. Actually, I think most students will like it, but there might be some that don't. And that's okay. No one is or should be required to appreciate anything.

Now, back to the Canterbury Tales:

This was an interesting playgoing experience for me because I had seen the Tavern's production of Canterbury Tales last year, and it is very rare for me to see the same play twice. While I enjoyed the first half of the show, I did begin to become a bit bored. The first half of the show was the same tales from last year. They were all the same jokes, and they made me smile but didn't make me laugh. (But it was still uplifting to be among all the revelry - going back to that whole energy/atmosphere thing.) The second half of the show sent me guffawing! It was hilarious - especially the chicken. Now, Laura Cole had mentioned earlier that morning how they designed the show to be funny but still convey Chaucer's "deep thoughts." I must say I missed those. I think they were there, but the action moved so fast, I didn't have time to ponder over what lesson the tale was supposed to teach me. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing or even matters. It's just an observation. It was a delightful performance, and I definitely enjoyed it.