Online Shakespearean Role Playing

With the rapid expansion of online learning in the past several years, one of the casualties has often been active and collaborative learning. The stereotype of an online literature class has students passively watching videos or taking multiple-choice quizzes over assigned readings, with little meaningful interaction. Discussions might follow a predictable post and response format that bears only a slight resemblance to meaningful conversation. Not only can this style of online learning be lonely and isolating, but it also deprives students of the chance to engage in performance and role-playing activities that can greatly enhance their understanding and enjoyment of literature. This need for performative interaction is especially keen in online Shakespeare classes, where role-playing can bring the characters to life and help students understand how much room the plays leave for creative interpretation. In my online general education Shakespeare class, students get the opportunity to “try on” and explore the different characters they are studying in through a variety of different role-playing activities. Through video role-playing with Macbeth, imaginative text and video role-playing with A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and workplace-focused role-playing with The Winter’s Tale, students learn how to “play” with Shakespeare’s characters, but also how to work together to explore some of the myriad possibilities for interpretation that the plays contain. This essay describes these different approaches to role-playing in the online Shakespeare classroom, connects them to pedagogical theory, and explains the benefits that students and I have seen as they have engaged with the texts and each other through the various activities.