How lucky am I: my friend and colleague, the uber-talented Danika Barker, invited me to take part in her project to use Twitter to explore Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing with actors speaking as
And I get to play mone other than the prickly cad Benedick, who verbally jousts with the snarky Beatrice.
Me in silly costume as Benedick
As of today, we are exploring Act II, scene 2, the masquerade ball.
How does it work? Ten or so of the major and supporting characters are being ‘played’ by ‘actors’ and we ‘speak’ in everyday language: being Benedick, my Twitter handle as that character is @2_benedick, and I tweet as if I am Benedick in his scenes.
Danika has organized this thoroughly: for example, a Google Calendar with dates for each scene; scene summaries and insight for each scene; and a Twitter list where all characters’ tweets appear in one handy place.
A confession: although I jumped at the chance to participate, i also felt some trepidation as the start date neared. But now that we are underway, I am thoroughly enjoying this experience.
Thank you, Danika! What an inventive way to teach Shakespeare!
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