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1 Annotated list of sites prepared for Mrs. Ray s 7 th Grade Gifted Class Novel: The Shakespeare Stealer, by Gary Blackwood Site #1 Fantastic, colorful overview of The Shakespeare Stealer. Site #2 Book review on the novel The Shakespeare Stealer. Site #3 Fun interactive site on words used in the book. Site #4 Site #5 Cue sheet library. Site #6: Then go to Just For Kids. Play games, crossword puzzles, etc. Site #7: includes Shakespeare s insults for kids. Site #8: Shakespeare Facts.

2 Site #9: The 12 days of Shakespeare. Site #10: Word origins and references to Shakespeare. Site #11: This site offers games and activities. Site #12: Site #13 An actor s blog featuring his time working on The Shakespeare Stealer. Site #14 Review of the play. Site #15 Crossword puzzle with The Shakespeare Stealer theme. Site #16 A summary of the book.

3 Site #17 This Nashville Children s Theater site gives lots of links about the book. Site #18 speare%20question%20chpt%208%2011.pdf Four questions pertaining to chapters Site #19 e+stealer&source=web&ots=uffer8m0eo&sig=tpouj3ey1icfo3- OIiDo5aDpSIg&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=9&ct=result#PPA4,M1 This site features a design portfolio for The Shakespeare Stealer. Site #20 &ei=qnblsl6qjipmyqszr5iqaq&sig=acfu3u3jx9zvl4kxzcek7tlf18z6kikig#ppp1,m1 This site offers a preview of a book of articles about Shakespeare and teaching Shakespeare today. Site #21 This file shows books about Shakespeare. The site is colorful. Site #22 This Shelfari site shows one teen s picks, including The Shakespeare Stealer. Site #23

4 kwood/content_ Review of sequels to The Shakespeare Stealer. Site #24 nced%20unit-renaissance%20and%20reformation.htm Great site about Renaissance and Reform. Site #25 speare%20stealer%20final%20project.pdf Final project choices relating to the book. This is a pdf file which features a reader s theater version of a scene from The Shakespeare Stealer. Warm Up Playwrights enjoy playing with language to create memorable characters. Probably no greater example is that of the characters created by William Shakespeare. Shakespeare's characters are still convincing today, in part because he gave each a unique voice. One of the ways he built memorable characters was by making them quick-witted. Audiences enjoyed listening to the pun-filled, witty lines uttered by his characters. Actors and directors must search for meaningful ways to present these words clearly to the audience so that the humor of a character or plot line are conveyed. Gary Blackwood, in his book/play The Shakespeare Stealer has also adopted the use of puns to build his characters. Listen to the following monologue. The character is John Heminges. He has just given a prompt book to Widge, a new apprentice in the Lord Chamberlain s Men: "Widge, you hold the b-book. If Sander or anyone seems l-lost for a line, f-feed him a few words. Not a whole m-mouthful, just a t-taste, to start his chawbones m-moving. Can you do that?" Discuss what Heminges is telling Widge to do and why. What can you tell about Heminges from this brief line? (He is a senior company member. He is responsible for the jobs in the theatre. He has a stammer. He is witty because he takes the idea of feeding the lines to the actors as if giving them food, i.e., mouthful, taste, chawbones moving. )

5 Introductory Activity Distribute the Excerpts from The Shakespeare Stealer handout. Have students read the handout to themselves, looking for examples of puns and word play. They should highlight the words or phrases and write an explanation for each, giving evidence for their answers. Give students about five to seven minutes to find the puns and word play. Discuss students' findings, asking them to offer support for their choices. Have several volunteers bring the dialogues to life in short scene readings. This is a lengthy excerpt from the play adapted from the novel, The Shakespeare Stealer.