This semester-long course invites students to stir up a mess of trouble in every dramatic way as we study the works of William Shakespeare. We will explore the many aspects of human nature and behavior in Shakespeare's tragedies, comedies and histories. Students should have an appreciation for the beauty of Shakespeare's language, and be eager to read, study, write and perform his poetry, prose, soliloquies, sonnets and scenes.

Students who take the course are required to read six plays during the semester; we will learn character study and how an Elizabethan actor prepares for a performance. We will study difficult passages, and make relevant connections between Shakespeare's time and today.

Assignments will include formal essays and creative projects that will take students outside the text and their comfort zone.

Class participation is imperative.

The reading list for the course is exciting:

• Hamlet (1st semester only)
• King Lear (2nd semester only)
• Henry IV, Part I
• Twelfth Night
• Henry V
• The Winter's Tale
• Coriolanus