ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE EDUCATION TOUR CURRICULUM GUIDE CONTENTS The Playwright.....................................................................2 Welcome to Shakespeare Festival St. Louis. Shakespeare Timeline..........................................................3 The Characters....................................................................4 This collection of resources was developed to accompany our 2015 Education Tour production of ACTIVITY: Character Connections........................................4 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. It contains information Synopsis.............................................................................5 and activities you can use in your classroom to ACTIVITY: Shake & Bake......................................................6 prepare your students for the performance, and to Themes in ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA...................................7 follow up with them afterwards. The Empire Strikes Back: The Sequel to JULIUS CAESAR......8 ACTIVITY: Ally / Enemy..........................................................9 The goal of all Festival education programs “In the The Last Pharaoh: Queen Cleopatra...................................10 Schools” is to deepen our community’s appreciation for and connection to Shakespeare, providing only The Language....................................................................11 the highest quality theatre education to inspire Style & Literary Devices.....................................................12 people of all ages - to creatively engage, explore, ACTIVITY: Sharpening the Speech......................................13 and delight in the works of William Shakespeare. Pre- and Post-Show Questions..........................................14 Shakespeare’s poetry and plays are a primary CURRICULUM GUIDE DESIGNED & COMPILED BY element in any process of lifelong learning. In the Michael B. Perkins 2013-14 season, more than 40,000 students in area schools and community venues experienced SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL ST. LOUIS Shakespeare through the Festival’s education 5715 Elizabeth Ave. programs. We welcome as many as 66,000 St. Louis, MO 63110 people annually to our mainstage production in (314) 531-9800 | SFSTL.com | @ShakesFestSTL Shakespeare Glen in Forest Park. Through the Festival’s education programs, students are challenged and engaged while enhancing their ability to read, watch, and perform Shakespeare. BRUCE LONGWORTH, Interim Artistic Director [email protected] Thank you for bringing the Festival to your school! JENNIFER WINTZER,Dir. of Community Engagement & Education [email protected] JENNIFER WINTZER MICHAEL B. PERKINS, Company & Special Projects Manager Director of Community Engagement & Education [email protected] CATIE GAINOR, Marketing & Promotions Coordinator [email protected] 2014 Education Tour: (left to right) Laura Sexauer, Susie Wirthlin, Khnemu Menu-Ra*, Whit Reichert*, Michael B. Perkins in Family of Kings (photo © J. David Levy) ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA CURRICULUM GUIDE • PAGE 1 THE PLAYWRIGHT William Shakespeare, the “Bard of Avon,” was baptized at Stratford-upon-Avon on April 26, 1564. Since no birth records were kept, tradition holds that he was born approximately three days before baptism, and that he died on his birthday, but this is perhaps more romantic myth than fact, as April 23 is St. George’s Day, named for the patron saint of England. His parents were John Shakespeare and Mary Arden, a landed heiress. John was a glover by trade, but also held the offices of alderman and later bailiff in Stratford (equivalent to a present-day mayor). William was the third of eight children in the Shakespeare household, three of whom died in childhood. We assume that Shakespeare went to the King’s New School (now Edward VI Grammar School), presumably because of his father’s position as bailiff. This would have meant that Shakespeare was exposed to the rudiments of Latin, rhetoric, logic, and literature. On November 27, 1582, 18 year-old William married 26 year-old Anne Hathaway. Their first daughter, Susanna, was born six months later. Three years after Susanna, the “SOUL OF THE AGE! Shakespeares bore twins, Hamnet & Judith, but Hamnet THE APPLAUSE! DELIGHT! died in childhood at the age of 11, on August 11, 1596. THE WONDER OF OUR STAGE!” It’s unclear how the young Shakespeare first came to London or to the stage. One theory holds that he was - Ben Jonson, arrested as a poacher and escaped to London to avoid Eulogy for William Shakespeare prosecution in Stratford; another holds that he joined a company of traveling players called Lord Strange’s Men, where he learned theatrical arts as an apprentice. However, it is clear that between 1582 and 1592, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Shakespeare became involved in the London theatre scene as a principal actor and playwright. By 1594, Shakespeare was listed as a shareholder in one of the most popular acting companies in London: the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. Led by Richard Burbage, one of the most famous Elizabethan actors, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men performed at the Rose Theatre, an outdoor stage on the banks of the Thames River. Around 1599, they constructed the Globe Theatre, perhaps the most recognizable Elizabethan playhouse. When King James I was crowned in 1603, he favored Shakespeare and the Chamberlain’s Men so much that the company was renamed the King’s Men. In 1608, the King’s Men leased the indoor Blackfriars Theatre in London, which served as their winter playhouse. The Globe Theatre stood until 1613, when it burned down during a performance of Henry VIII. Shakespeare retired to Stratford not long after, where he died on April 23, 1616, and was buried at Holy Trinity Church two days later. In the years since Shakespeare’s death, he has become one of the most celebrated writers in history. His plays were not published until the 1623 First Folio, seven years after his death, compiled by John Heminges and Henry Condell, former players in the King’s Men. However, in the 1800s, his plays became so popular that many refused to believe that a glovemaker’s son from Stratford (with no university training) had written them. To this day some believe that Sir Francis Bacon was the true author of the plays; others choose to believe Edward DeVere, 17th Earl of Oxford, was the author. Still others would prefer to believe Christopher Marlowe, a fellow playwright, penned the lines attributed to Shakespeare. While speculation still runs rampant, what isn’t disputed is that William Shakespeare was the “Soul of the Age.” ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA CURRICULUM GUIDE • PAGE 2 November 17, 1558 1589-90 Accession of Queen Elizabeth HENRY VI, PARTS 1 - 3 April 26, 1564 1590-94 William Shakespeare's Baptism EDWARD III September 4, 1568 1592-94 Election of John Shakespeare as Bailiff of Stratford RICHARD III THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA THE TAMING OF THE SHREW November 27, 1582 E TITUS ANDRONICUS Shakespeare marries Anne Hathaway THE COMEDY OF ERRORS May 26, 1583 N 1594-97 Susanna Shakespeare’s Baptism ROMEO AND JULIET February 2, 1585 I THE MERCHANT OF VENICE Hamnet & Judith Shakespeare’s Baptism May 30, 1593 L 1595 Death of Christopher Marlowe RICHARD II August 11, 1596 E LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST Burial of Hamnet Shakespeare 1595-96 October 20, 1596 M KING JOHN John Shakespeare Granted Coat of Arms A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM May 4, 1597 1596 Shakespeare Buys New Place in Stratford I SIR THOMAS MORE 1599 T 1596-97 Opening of the Globe Theatre HENRY IV, PART 1 THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR E 1598 February 8, 1601 HENRY IV, PART 2 Essex Rebellion against Elizabeth I R HENRY V September 8, 1601 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING Burial of John Shakespeare 1599 March 24, 1603 A AS YOU LIKE IT Death of Queen Elizabeth I JULIUS CAESAR May 19, 1603 E 1600-03 King James I creates The King’s Men HAMLET November 5, 1605 P Gunpowder Plot to Destroy Parliament TROILUS AND CRESSIDA June 5, 1607 TWELFTH NIGHT Marriage of Susanna Shakespeare to Dr. John Hall S ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL September 9, 1608 1604 Burial of Mary (Arden) Shakespeare E MEASURE FOR MEASURE 1608 OTHELLO King’s Men buy Blackfriars Theatre K 1605-06 1609 KING LEAR Publication of Shakespeare’s Sonnets A MACBETH June 29, 1613 1607-08 Fire at the Globe Theatre H CORIOLANUS February 10, 1616 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA Marriage of Judith Shakespeare to Thomas Quiney TIMON OF ATHENS S PERICLES 1609 March 25, 1616 SONNETS William Shakespeare Signs his Will CYMBELINE April 23, 1616 1610-11 William Shakespeare Dies THE WINTER’S TALE April 25, 1616 THE TEMPEST Burial of William Shakespeare November 1623 1612-14 First Folio Published HENRY VIII by John Heminges & Henry Condell THE TWO NOBLE KINSMEN AANNTTOONNYY AANNDD CCLLEEOOPPAATTRRAA CCUURRRRIICCUULLUUMM GGUUIIDDEE •• PPAAGGEE 33 THE CHARACTERS Antony and Cleopatra is packed with Romans, Greeks, and Egyptians all vying for power, but sometimes it can be difficult to sort out which characters are friends and enemies. This color-coded diagram (and the synopsis on the following page) will help you keep track of characters’ relationships throughout the play. The Second Triumvirate OCTAVIUS CAESAR MARCUS LEPIDUS MARK ANTONY CLEOPATRA Queen of Egypt Caesar’s Followers Antony’s Followers Cleopatra’s Attendants OCTAVIA SEXTUS POMPEY DOMITUS ENOBARBUS Caesar’s sister, later Rebel against the CHARMIAN DEMETRIUS Antony’s wife Triumvirate a maid PHILO MAECENAS IRAS VENTIDIUS AGRIPPA Pompey’s Followers a maid SILIUS TAURUS SELEUCUS EROS DOLABELLA Treasurer MENECRATES CANIDIUS THIDIAS ALEXAS MENAS SCARUS GALLUS MARDIAN VARRIUS DECRETAS PROCULEIUS DIOMEDES ACTIVITY: CHARACTER CONNECTIONS In this activity, middle school and high school students will use their creativity, artistic abilities, and imaginations to explore the character relationships in Antony and Cleopatra. After students have seen the performance or read the play, give them the list of characters from above. Ask students to choose ten characters and create a visual project that illustrates the characters and their relationships to each other. This can be done using a character web, a diagram, in the style of a family tree or photo album, or abstractly. Students can use different colors, textures, craft materials, magazine images, cartoons or symbols, to represent the characters and how they are interconnected. Use the diagram above as an example. Each visual project should be accompanied by an “Artist’s Essay,” a brief written summary that explains what inspired their artistic choices. ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA CURRICULUM GUIDE • PAGE 4 SYNOPSIS ACT 1 ACT 4 “You shall be more beloving than beloved.” “‘Tis the god Hercules, whom Antony loved, / Now leaves him.” - Soothsayer (Act 1, Scene 2) - Second Soldier (Act 4, Scene 3) Antony, Rome’s finest general, idles away his days far from home. Having had his challenge of single combat roundly rejected by Seduced by the good life in Egypt—the feasting, the parties, Caesar, Antony hopes for swift victory in a second battle. Though and above all by Cleopatra, his lover and Egypt’s queen—he is the omens are not good—Enobarbus has defected and his a shadow of the man he was. Such at least is the view of Caesar soldiers are convinced that Hercules has deserted them—the first and his councilors, who are eager to have Antony back in Rome day’s fighting goes well for Antony and he returns to Cleopatra in to deal with the threat of rebellion from Pompey, all to no avail. triumph. But catastrophe strikes the next day when the Egyptian But when Antony hears of his wife Fulvia’s death, he realizes that ships suddenly surrender. Antony, watching from land, blames he can delay no longer. Cleopatra is dismayed that he is returning Cleopatra and threatens to murder them both. When Cleopatra to Rome, and although she eventually agrees, cannot get him out responds by sending news of her own feigned suicide to Antony, of her mind. In the meantime, though, a soothsayer has predicted he takes it seriously and attempts to kill himself. Fatally wounded, that the fortunes of the world’s most glamorous couple are waning. he is carried off to see her one last time. ACT 2 ACT 5 “Though it be honest, it is never good / To bring bad news...” “No grave upon the earth shall clip in it / A pair so famous.” - Cleopatra (Act 2, Scene 5) - Octavius Caesar (Act 5, Scene 2) At Pompey’s camp, the news that Caesar has assembled an army is When Antony dies, Cleopatra sees death as the only option, but not well-received; worse, Antony has returned. Meanwhile, Rome’s she is prevented from stabbing herself by Caesar’s soldiers. When three rulers are locked in argument: Antony is criticized for Fulvia’s Dolabella reveals that Caesar intends her to be paraded through erstwhile rebellion but denies undermining Caesar. Agrippa Rome, Cleopatra is appalled and resolves to die at once. Placing suggests that in order to strengthen their alliance and be reconciled, asps to her chest and arm, she predicts reunion with Antony in Antony should marry Caesar’s sister Octavia. Both agree, but the afterlife. Caesar, discovering her body, arranges for the lovers it isn’t long before Antony longs to return to Egypt. News of to share a tomb. Antony’s conduct has already reached Cleopatra, however, and she is devastated. And although the threat of civil war is averted when Pompey agrees to cease his campaign, it becomes clear at the peace dinner that his intentions are far darker than anyone realizes. ACT 3 “Her tongue will not obey her heart, nor can her heart / Inform her tongue.” - Mark Antony (Act 3, Scene 2) Rome’s campaign against the Parthians has been successful, but old wounds rapidly re-open as Antony, on the way to Athens with new wife Octavia, criticizes Caesar’s renewal of hostilities with Pompey. Octavia is sent to Rome to mediate, but it is soon reported that Antony has returned to Egypt without Octavia’s knowledge, and that he has promised the eastern empire to Cleopatra. Caesar, fresh from his trouncing of Pompey, intends to fight. And Antony, accompanied by his lover, is showing dangerous lapses of judgment: spurning the advice of their military advisors, they prepare for an ill-fated sea assault. As predicted, they lose. Antony begs for peace and to retire into private life with Cleopatra, but Caesar rejects those terms and attempts to turn Antony and Cleopatra against each other. Charles Coghlan, Lilly Langtry in Antony and Cleopatra, The Princess Theatre, 1890 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA CURRICULUM GUIDE • PAGE 5 ACTIVITY: SHAKE & BAKE Taking inspiration from The Reduced Shakespeare Company’s hilarious and brief The Compleat Wrks of Wllm Shakespeare (Abridged) we present our own very concise version of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. 1. Make eleven photocopies of this handout—one each for Antony, Cleopatra, and the nine other actors. 2. Have eleven volunteers take their places at the front of the room. Assign roles and let the actors read through the script once, for rehearsal. Then get out your stopwatch and see if your students can make or break the 30-second record. When the script indicates that a character dies, the actor must drop to the floor. 3. Then select eleven more volunteers to see if the second group can beat the first group’s record. Again, give them a practice run before timing, and cheer for the winners. 4. If you wish, ask your students, in groups, to create their own 30-second versions of one act from Antony and Cleopatra. Along with selecting short and punchy lines to highlight the plot, they need to pick the characters that they want to include in their scripts. For example, in “The 30-second Antony and Cleopatra,” Actors 1-9 are, respectively, Philo, the Soothsayer, Agrippa, Menas, Enobarbus, Eros, and the three Guardsmen. 30-SECOND ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA ACTOR 1: The triple pillar of the world transformed into a strumpet’s fool. CLEOPATRA: As I am Egypt’s queen, ANTONY: Let Rome in Tiber melt ACTOR 2: I make not, but foresee. CLEOPATRA: O, never was there queen so mightily betrayed! ACTOR 3: Rare Egyptian! Royal wench! ACTOR 4: Wilt thou be lord of all the world? ANTONY: If I lose mine honor, I lose myself CLEOPATRA: I will not stay behind. ANTONY: O, whither hast thou led me, Egypt? ACTOR 5: I am alone the villain of the earth. (dies) ACTOR 6: Farewell, great chief. (dies) ANTONY: Let him that loves me strike me dead. ACTOR 7: Not I. (exit) ACTOR 8: Nor I. (exit) ACTOR 9: Nor anyone. (exit) (Antony dies) CLEOPATRA: I will not wait pinioned at your master’s court. (dies) AANNTTOONNYY AANNDD CCLLEEOOPPAATTRRAA CCUURRRRIICCUULLUUMM GGUUIIDDEE •• PPAAGGEE 66 THEMES IN ANTONY & CLEOPATRA DUTY vs. DESIRE “His captain’s heart ... reneges all temper / And is become the bellows and the fan / To cool a gipsy’s lust.” - Philo (Act 1, Scene 1) Philo’s criticism of Antony introduces a tension between duty and desire that runs throughout the play. If, according to Roman popularity, Antony is the military hero and disciplined statesmen that Caesar and others believe him to be, then he seems to have happily abandoned his duty in order to pursue his desire. The play, however, is more concerned with the battle between duty and desire than the triumph of one over the other, and this battle is waged most forcefully in the character of Antony. At one moment, he is the vengeful war hero whom Caesar praises and fears. Soon thereafter, he sacrifices his military position by unwisely allowing Cleopatra to determine his action. Although Antony dies believing himself a man of honor, discipline, and reason, our understanding of him is not nearly as straight-forward. In order to come to terms with Antony’s character, we must analyze the aspects of his identity that he ignores. He is, in the end, a man ruled by desire as much as by duty. “LET ROME IN TIBER MELT, AND THE WIDE ARCH OF THE RANGED EMPIRE FALL...” - ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA (ACT 1, SCENE 1) FATE vs. FREE WILL Julius Caesar, Shakespeare Festival St. Louis, 2006 “The gods best know... ” - Mark Antony (Act 1, Scene 3) Were the suicides of Antony and Cleopatra a predetermined fate, or did they willingly take their own life? Religious belief was central to Roman culture; they believed that their fate was predetermined, and the gods influenced every area of their lives. They looked to gods like Jupiter, Juno, etc. because they believed them to have power over every area of daily life, and the Romans went to great lengths to gain their favor and approval. Romans attempted to please the gods by following an elaborate and specific set of rituals, including prayers and sacrifices, and some even claimed to speak for the gods (such as the Soothsayer in the play), but ultimately, their fate was unknown, raising the frequent debate between fate and free will. For example, the Soothsayer predicts that Antony’s fortunes are declining, and Octavius later defeats him. If the Soothsayer said nothing, would Antony’s fate still be to lose the Battle of Actium, or did his own actions cause his defeat? It’s a debate that is frequently referenced in many of Shakespeare’s plays, and one that we continue to ponder as a people. HONOR “It wounds thine honor that I speak it now... ” - Octavius Caesar (Act 1, Scene 4) Throughout the play, characters define honor several different ways, and often in ways that are not intuitive. As Antony prepares to meet Caesar in battle, he determines that he “will live / Or bathe [his] dying honour in the blood / Shall make it live again.” Here, he explicitly links the notion of honor to to that of death, suggesting the latter as a surefire means of achieving the former. The play bears out this assertion, since, although Antony and Cleopatra kill themselves for different reasons, they both imagine that the act invests them with honor. In death, Antony returns to his identity as a true, noble Roman, becoming “a Roman by a Roman / Valiantly vanquished” (Act 4, Scene 16), while Cleopatra resolves to “bury him, and then what’s brave, what’s noble, / Let’s do it after the high Roman fashion” (Act 4, Scene 16). At first, the queen’s words seem to suggest that honor is a distinctly Roman attribute, but Cleopatra’s death, which is her means of ensuring that she remains her truest, most uncompromised self, is distinctly against Rome. In Antony and Cleopatra, honor seems less a function of Western or Eastern culture than of the characters’ determination to define themselves on their own terms. Both Antony and Cleopatra secure honorable deaths by refusing to compromise their identities. ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA CURRICULUM GUIDE • PAGE 7 THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK: The Sequel to Julius Caesar It’s an epic saga of noble heroes fighting for honor, appears to be politically ineffective, frittering away his of political corruption and conspiracy, of a Republic share of imperial command for the sake of his sensual becoming an Empire. It sounds a lot like Star Wars, indulgence with the Egyptian enchantress, Cleopatra. doesn’t it? This is Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and Antony Which is the real Antony—the General of the West or and Cleopatra. But the fact that these two plays can be the Ladies’ Man of the East? And yet, comparing the described in the same terms as one of the most popular two plays allows us to grasp Shakespeare’s underlying film franchises of our day is testimony to the continuing sense of how differing political circumstances work to relevance and perennial power of Shakespeare’s work. In shape character and even alter a man’s destiny. Julius Caesar, written in 1599, Shakespeare portrayed the He loves no plays last days of the Roman Republic, a community that at As thou dost, Antony; he hears no music. its best upheld a common good and expected its citizens to participate actively in political life. The conspirators - JULIUS CAESAR (Act 1, Scene 2) assassinated Julius Caesar because they believed he was destroying this way of life and ushering in a new era of rule by a single man, which would replace the republican Already in Julius Caesar, Antony appears as something virtues with the decadence of empire—just what of a pleasure-seeker, foreshadowing his role in the later Shakespeare went on to portray in Antony and Cleopatra, play. Caesar himself says that he prefers the fun-loving written some years later in 1606. Antony to men obsessed with politics like Cassius: “He loves no plays, / As thou dost, Antony; he hears no music.” In Antony’s bitter confrontation with the conspirators before the battle of Philippi, Cassius harks back to his reputation as “a reveller.” In fact, the conspirators fatally underestimate Antony’s political capacity precisely because of his rakish image. In deciding not to kill Antony along with Caesar, Brutus dismisses his political importance: “…he is given / To sports, to wildness, and much company.” This sounds like the Mark Antony we know from Antony and Cleopatra. It’s actually the politically effective Antony of Julius Illustration from William Shakespeare’s Star Wars (Quirk Books) Caesar who is “out of character.” What, then, transforms The mention of Star Wars also reminds us that Antony into the powerful political force we see in the Shakespeare was not averse to one of the most basic center of the play? The assassination of Julius Caesar. Hollywood formulas—the sequel. Is Antony and The memory of Caesar gives Antony a cause worth Cleopatra a sequel to Julius Caesar? They do share several fighting for, and, if need be, dying for. To Antony, characters (Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus), the action Julius Caesar was “the noblest man / That ever lived of the second is roughly continuous with that of the in the tide of times.” Antony and Cleopatra chronicles first, and there are many references to Julius Caesar, his desperate search for another such moment when Pompey the Great, and others in Antony and Cleopatra. could find a cause as noble as Julius Caesar for which Some object to the fundamental inconsistencies to die: Cleopatra. between the two plays, above all, in the character of A Roman by a Roman / Valiantly vanquished. Mark Antony. In Julius Caesar, he comes across as a master politician, able to manipulate the mob in Rome - ANTONY & CLEOPATRA (Act 4, Scene 15) and defeat Caesar’s assassins in the public forum and on the battlefield. By contrast, in Antony and Cleopatra, he ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA CURRICULUM GUIDE • PAGE 8 THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK: The Sequel to Julius Caesar DISCUSSION QUESTIONS • Is Cleopatra a worthy cause for Antony to give his life? • Is the character of Mark Antony consistent between the plays Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra? • Do you think Shakespeare intended to make Antony and Cleopatra a sequel to Julius Caesar? ACTIVITY: ALLY / ENEMY The lives of Antony and Cleopatra are filled with allies who became enemies, and enemies who become allies. This activity will explore and help the students understand these allegiances. 1. Students nonverbally walk around the room. They must not communicate with others. 2. After a couple minutes, instruct the students to silently select a person in the room who will be their personal “ally.” They silently continue to move around the room. 3. Instruct the students to silently select a person in the room who will be their personal “enemy.” Students continue to silently move around the room. 4. Tell the students that their goal is to keep their defender between themselves and their enemy at all times. After a few minutes, put different levels of importance on the circumstance. 5. Encourage them to get their whole bodies involved and connect with the circumstances: • Does your enemy annoy you? Owe you money? Did they steal something from you? Are they an ex-boyfriend or girlfriend? Is their enemy trying to kill them? • What was the experience like? • How did the circumstances change the way you felt or moved? ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA CURRICULUM GUIDE • PAGE 9