ABSTRACT
Throughout my experience as a director and teacher of Shakespeare, I have repeatedly encountered fear and resistance to the Bard and his plays. Actors and directors complain that their conservatory training did not prepare them for the classics, and they are afraid to tackle Shakespeare’s plays in performance. Middle school and high school students find the material inaccessible and boring, often citing that teachers have them sit silently at their desks and force them to read the play aloud. English and theatre teachers report fearing Shakespeare because they feel unprepared to help others to understand his plays. They say that the language is dense, the themes are complex, and the references are obscure. ‘What will happen if a student asks me a question, and I don’t know the answer?’ It seems that teachers inadvertently transmit fear and resistance towards Shakespeare to their students through instruction. Palmer states that teachers cannot see their students’ fears until they have seen their own (Palmer, 1993: 11), and this certainly applies to the teaching of Shakespeare.
