Fontes Academy | Shakespeare as a Living Feast

Semester I • 12 weeks

Know the play

Read it in parts. Narrate it. Meet the characters. Grow familiar with Shakespeare's language. Follow interesting rabbit holes without making the extras the point.

→

Semester II • 12 weeks

Become the players

Students will move from readers to players as we cast, rehearse, memorize selected scenes, work on comic timing and character, add simple costumes and props, and prepare an abbreviated version of the play for performance.

Course quick access

Keep the week's essentials close at hand

Weekly syllabus ↓ Read the play at Folger ↗ 🎧 Archangel Audiobook — The Comedy of Errors ↗

Semester I

12-week reading, narration & delight plan

Week 1 introduces the feast. Weeks 2–11 read the entire play. Week 12 is a Shakespeare festa. The in-class meeting stays around twenty minutes; the home resources can expand as far as a family wants.

Week 1 — Welcome to Shakespeare: A Family Festa

5 min • NarrateWhat do you already know or imagine about Shakespeare and seeing a play?

7 min • DiscussWhy read a play rather than only a plot summary?

8 min • ActivityAssign roles and read a tiny exchange in character.

At home: preview the character list and twin map. Optional: read the whole Nesbit retelling once so the plot is familiar before the original scenes begin.

CM focus: Shakespeare as lifelong feast, not a decoding exercise.

CM Shakespeare history ↗Folger: Shakespeare's theater ↗

Week 2 — Act 1.1: Hear the Story, Then Tell It

5 min • NarrateTell Egeon's family story from memory.

7 min • DiscussWhy might a comedy begin with separation and danger?

8 min • ActivityDraw the separated family tree without looking back.

Home reading: Act 1, Scene 1 aloud in parts.

Optional rabbit hole: Ancient Greek comedy: what did “comedy” mean before Shakespeare?

Read Act 1.1 ↗Birth of Comedy ↗

Week 3 — Act 1.2: The First Error

5 min • NarrateTell the first mistaken encounter from both characters' points of view.

7 min • DiscussWhy is a misunderstanding funnier when the audience knows the truth?

8 min • ActivityTwo-perspective improv with incompatible information.

Home reading: Act 1, Scene 2.

Optional rabbit hole: Plautus and Roman twin comedy. Shakespeare borrowed the basic twin plot of Menaechmi and intensified it.

Read Act 1.2 ↗Folger: About the play ↗

Week 4 — Act 2.1: Character, Relationship & Point of View

5 min • NarrateWhat does Adriana think is happening?

7 min • DiscussWhat does each character know — and not know?

8 min • ActivityBuild a relationship/status map from memory.

Home reading: Act 2, Scene 1.

CM focus: relationship with characters before literary terminology.

Read Act 2.1 ↗RSC Learning Zone ↗

Week 5 — Act 2.2: Shakespeare's Words

5 min • NarrateWhy does Antipholus S. go with Adriana?

7 min • DiscussWhich joke depends on language rather than situation?

8 min • ActivityRead one short exchange with three different intentions.

Home reading: Act 2, Scene 2.

CM focus: let repeated exposure teach the ear; use annotations only when needed.

Read Act 2.2 ↗Folger language help ↗

Week 6 — Act 3.1: The Door Scene — Farce Is Choreography

5 min • NarrateRetell the locked-door disaster like a sports commentator.

7 min • DiscussWhy must the audience know who is inside and outside?

8 min • ActivityStage the scene geography with chairs as doors.

Home reading: Act 3, Scene 1.

Optional rabbit hole: farce, entrances, exits, doors, and precise timing.

Read Act 3.1 ↗RSC teaching resources ↗

Week 7 — Act 3.2: Character Through Voice & Body

5 min • NarrateExplain the newest misunderstanding.

7 min • DiscussWhat can posture, pace, voice, and word choice tell us?

8 min • ActivityPlay four silent comic “types” and let classmates identify them.

Home reading: Act 3, Scene 2.

Optional rabbit hole: commedia dell'arte, masks, improvisation, and stock characters.

Read Act 3.2 ↗The Met: Commedia ↗

Week 8 — Act 4.1–2: Repetition & Escalation

5 min • NarrateTrace one object or message through the confusion.

7 min • DiscussWhy does repetition become funnier when something changes?

8 min • ActivityCreate a three-beat escalating routine.

Home reading: Act 4, Scenes 1–2.

CM focus: narration may follow one thread instead of summarizing everything.

Read Act 4.1 ↗Read Act 4.2 ↗

Week 9 — Act 4.3: The Audience Knows More

5 min • NarrateDescribe Ephesus exactly as Antipholus S. now understands it.

7 min • DiscussWhy does his wrong explanation make sense from his viewpoint?

8 min • ActivityAudience-secret improv.

Home reading: Act 4, Scene 3.

CM focus: point-of-view narration.

Read Act 4.3 ↗

Week 10 — Act 4.4: Physical Comedy — Then & Now

5 min • NarrateTell the scene as a chain reaction.

7 min • DiscussWhen is physical comedy funny? When can it become cruel?

8 min • ActivitySafe no-contact slapstick: near misses, hat swaps, dodges, synchronized surprise.

Home reading: Act 4, Scene 4.

Optional rabbit hole: silent film and visual comedy.

Read Act 4.4 ↗MoMA: Silent Comedy ↗

Week 11 — Act 5.1: Recognition & Restoration

5 min • NarrateTell each recognition in order.

7 min • DiscussWhat was broken at the beginning, and what has been restored?

8 min • ActivityFinal tableau: each character says what they misunderstood.

Home reading: Act 5, Scene 1.

CM focus: tell what the whole play has come to mean, rather than answering a worksheet.

Read Act 5.1 ↗Folger: Modern Perspective ↗

Week 12 — Shakespeare Festa

Dress as a character, comic archetype, Elizabethan theatre-goer, Roman player, or silent-film comedian. Bring commonplace books, illustrations, character maps, favorite lines, and one small scene to read or perform.

ReadFavorite exchanges aloud.

DisplayRabbit-hole research and commonplace books.

FeastEat, laugh, play twin-name games, and celebrate.

Final narration: “Tell something you understand about Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors, or comedy now that you did not understand twelve weeks ago.”

The heart of the course

A Charlotte Mason Shakespeare class

The play itself remains the center. Retellings, podcasts, history, glossaries, and videos are servants of the living work — useful when they open a door, never substitutes for meeting Shakespeare.

Our weekly rhythm

1. PrepareKnow who is in the scene.

2. ReadOriginal text aloud in parts.

3. NarrateTell it back from memory.

4. DiscussOne worthwhile question.

5. DelightNotice a line, joke, image, or choice.

Why Charlotte Mason and Shakespeare belong together

Charlotte Mason families have long used Shakespeare as part of a rich feast of living books, read aloud in character, narrated naturally, and returned to over many years. This course follows that spirit: meet the play itself, enjoy the language, and let the story grow familiar through repeated, delightful encounters.

Charlotte Mason Shakespeare resources ↗

Narration

How to narrate Shakespeare

After a scene or natural chunk, close the book. Give students the dignity of organizing what they heard before the teacher begins explaining.

1

Read

Read once with attention, preferably aloud and in character.

2

Close

Close the text. Resist the urge to lecture immediately.

3

Tell

“Tell me what happened.” Let the student choose order and emphasis.

4

Wonder

Then discuss one or two genuinely interesting things.

Narration invitations

Tell this scene back as clearly as you can.
Tell it from Dromio's point of view.
Draw who thinks everyone is who.
What changed between the beginning and the end?
Act it silently, then narrate what happened.
Choose one line for your commonplace book.
Make a six-frame comic strip from memory.

Keep narration from becoming a quiz

Do not explain every difficult line before reading.
Do not stop constantly for vocabulary.
Do not follow narration with twenty comprehension questions.
Do not require every student to catch every joke.
Do not correct every small omission while a narration is unfolding.

AmblesideOnline Shakespeare ↗ Shakespeare recitations ↗ Charlotte Mason programme history ↗

Living-book doorways

Three ways into The Comedy of Errors

Use the retellings lightly and freely. They are there to help a child see the path through the forest of twins — then return to Shakespeare.

Primary text

William Shakespeare

Folger's free text can be read scene by scene and downloaded in multiple formats. This is the text around which the semester is built.

Read at Folger ↗

Gentler doorway

E. Nesbit

Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare contains a shorter retelling of The Comedy of Errors and is public domain in the United States.

Read / download free ↗

Richer prose doorway

Charles & Mary Lamb

Tales from Shakespeare was written as an introduction for young readers and preserves Shakespeare's words where the Lambs could.

Read / download free ↗

Which version should our family use?

Confident family: go straight to Shakespeare. Lost in the twins: read Nesbit first. Enjoys richer prose: try Lamb. No family needs to read all three every week.

For the ears

Listen & learn

All of the listening resources you sent are collected here with clear titles, so families can tell exactly what they are before clicking.

Start here: Shakespeare & how to approach him

Podcast • Parent / older student

How to Read Shakespeare

The Literary Life — Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks discuss approaching Shakespeare as an ordinary reader, reading with children, forms of the plays, and whether to read or watch first.

Listen / show notes ↗

Podcast • Biography

The Life of Shakespeare: Part One

The Play's the Thing — first half of a two-part exploration of Shakespeare's life.

Listen on Spotify ↗

Podcast • Biography

The Life of Shakespeare: Part Two

The Play's the Thing — the second half of the Shakespeare biography.

Listen on Spotify ↗

Podcast • Family Q&A

The Life of Shakespeare Q&A

The Play's the Thing — Shakespeare questions from a family of readers.

Listen on Spotify ↗

Our play & wider Shakespeare

Podcast • Our play

The Comedy of Errors

The Play's the Thing — a dedicated episode on Shakespeare's twin-filled comedy and its confusion.

Listen on Spotify ↗

Podcast • Optional Shakespeare rabbit hole

Shakespeare on Leadership

The Play's the Thing — an optional exploration of leadership through Shakespeare's rulers and plays.

Listen on Spotify ↗

Charlotte Mason spirit: listening can prepare the soil, but students still return to the play itself for the main encounter.

Fontes student resources

Shakespeare's kinds of plays

Your genre sheets are now grouped as one resource collection. Students can open each original Drive file or download the combined Fontes companion packet.

Three Kinds of Plays

Preview shown above. Comedy • Tragedy • History comparison.

Open original ↗

Shakespearean Comedy

Preview shown above. Love, confusion, wordplay, identity, reconciliation.

Open original ↗

Shakespearean Tragedy

Preview shown above. Deep conflict, choice, suffering, consequence.

Open original ↗

Shakespearean History

Preview shown above. Kings, power, leadership, loyalty, conflict, and England's past.

Open original ↗

⬇ Download the complete companion packet

Genre note: the 1623 First Folio grouped the plays as Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies. Modern readers sometimes add categories such as romances/late plays.

Permanent shelf

Charlotte Mason + Shakespeare library

🌿 A Programme for ShakespeareResearch into PNEU Shakespeare choices plus Mason's “family festa” vision. 📚 AmblesideOnline: ShakespeareCharlotte Mason-oriented Shakespeare helps and scheduling. 🗣 Shakespeare RecitationsOptional passages for recitation and commonplace work. 📖 E. NesbitBeautiful Stories from Shakespeare, public domain. 📖 Charles & Mary LambTales from Shakespeare, public domain. 🎭 Folger Full PlayFree original text and downloadable formats. 🔤 Folger Language GuideHelp with syntax, older word meanings, compression, and wordplay. 🎬 RSC Learning ZoneStory, characters, language, staging, images, and videos. 🧑‍🏫 RSC Learning ResourcesTeaching ideas, themes, school synopsis, and production resources. 🏟 Folger: Shakespeare's TheaterActors, audiences, playhouses, staging, and costumes. 🦁 Shakespeare's Globe PlaygroundFamily-friendly ways to explore Shakespeare and the theatre. 🎧 The Literary Life: How to Read ShakespeareParent/teacher orientation for approaching the plays.

Optional feast • never homework overload

The long history of laughter

Keep these as “for the child who wants to know more” resources. Shakespeare remains the glue; the history of comedy gives curious families trails to follow.

Ancient GreeceComedy and public theatre

Aristophanes, satire, chorus, civic performance.

Ancient RomePlautus & Terence

Domestic confusion, clever servants, twins, stock situations.

CommediaRenaissance Italy

Masks, professional troupes, physical comic types, improvisation.

Shakespeare1590s

Roman plot machinery + English language + stage energy.

Stage & VaudevilleLater traditions

Double acts, routines, doors, pacing, callbacks.

Silent Film20th century

Visual gags, pantomime, chases, escalation, precise physical timing.

🏺 OpenLearn: The Birth of ComedyAncient Greek comedy and theatre. 🎭 The Met: Commedia dell'arteVisual history of professional comic troupes and stock characters. 🎞 MoMA: Silent Comedy InternationalVisual comedy, pantomime, and film traditions. 🌀 Folger: About Comedy of ErrorsPlautus, farce, twins, and Shakespeare's comic machinery. 🔍 Folger: A Modern PerspectiveSlapstick, puns, repetition, variation, and the play's deeper confusion. 🎬 RSC: Story, Characters, Language, StagingA strong all-semester play companion.

Semester II • From readers to players

12 weeks to perform The Comedy of Errors

Because students already know the story, relationships, language, and comic devices, rehearsal can begin from familiarity rather than confusion.

Early Semester

Meet the adapted script, receive roles, explore characters, begin memorization, and start putting selected scenes on their feet.

Middle Semester

Build the abbreviated production through rehearsal, comic timing, movement, scene work, transitions, and simple production elements.

Final Weeks

Bring the selected scenes together, add costumes and props, practice entrances and transitions, and prepare for our final performance and cast celebration.

Detailed Semester II schedule coming later. Because we will perform an abbreviated adaptation rather than every scene of the original play, the exact rehearsal sequence will be shaped around our final script, cast, and production needs.

Coming soon: casting information, the adapted script, memorization helps, rehearsal calendar, costume and prop ideas, family volunteer opportunities, and performance details.