What is Shakespeare's 400 for 4?
Read 400 hundred pages of Shakespeare for four months.
Sounds like a lot of work right? Well, we are always proud of you at Shakespeare at Home for any amount of learning and reading you do especially on Shakespeare already. And we think you will do this new activity to mark 400 years since the publication of the First Folio with ease.
Challenge:
Can you read a minimum of 400 pages of Shakespeares work within four months? We estimate that’s just under 4 pages per day. A page could be a selection of sonnets or pages from any of Shakespeares plays. You can pick and choose what you read, when you read and how you read. You don’t have to read a play in order, you could open a play up and read any page randomly. You can of course choose to read a Shakespeare play from start to finish, which we'd love, in order and move on to another one. You can choose to read by listening to any of Shakespeares works for a combined total of 400 hundred minutes within four months which is roughly 6.7 hours of audio. If you mix reading print with audio we suggest you always complete a sonnet or a full scene before changing from one to the other. Finally, Shakespeare's work was always intended to be seen live - you can complete your challenge by also attending four live Shakespeare performances or perhaps performing your own full Shakespeare play.
Whatever way you decide to read 400 pages of Shakespeare is up to you, as long as it is within four months.
As we are celebrating 400 years since the First Folio was published as part of your challenge we want you to visit the Bodleian First Folio and compare the original text against the source material you are using, side-by-side. What can you see that is different? How are the words spelt differently? Does the pronunciation change how the scene makes you feel? How does saying the words feel different as you speak them outloud? Using what you have learnt from your Shakespeare at Home activities to-date see what you can mine and discover from the First Folio as you complete, Shakespeare's 400 For 4.
We have created resources to help you keep a note of how you are doing along your way beside other fun activities and puzzles that you are familiar with to learn more about the First Folio. At the end you have one final task to complete your challenge, choose four of your favourite pages of Shakespeare and read them out loud either to yourself or in front of your pets, family or friends. Perhaps you could even make your own Globe Theatre to perform in…using what you’ve learnt from your activities so far, how could you do that using what you have at home?
For further resources on the celebrations we recommended visiting Folio400 - Printing Shakespeare who are leading the festivities.
Shakespeare wrote for everyone and is for everyone, whether you are familiar with his work already or are curious as to what all the fuss is about, we urge you - have a go.
Have fun and fare thee well!
