Agenda

Quiz
Plot/Word questions
Comedy (Genre) and Carnival
Reading and Performing Merry Wives

Quiz

1. Other than Falstaff, name a character in Merry Wives of Windsor whom we’ve met before in Henry V.
2. When the play begins, what or who are Shallow and Slender angry at?
3. How does Anne Page figure in the plot?
4. Falstaff is running out of money.  How does he plan to get more?
5. Why does Simple visit Mistress Quickly (hint: Fenton visits her for the same reason, and her master Dr. Caius similarly wants much the same thing from Quickly as Simple and Fenton).
6. Why doesn’t Quickly want Dr. Caius to look in his closet?

Bonus: What does Slender mean when he says “I may quarter”?  What is “quartering” in this context?

Plot/Word questions?

Comedy (Genres)

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Reading and Performing Merry Wives

1. Figure out anything you don’t understand, before you do anything else!
2. What are the characters like?
   • How will you signify what they are like through the sound of their voice?
   • How will you signify what they are like through what they look like or wear?
   • How will you signify what they are like through how they move?
3. What does the character want, and how will you convey this desire through the character’s tone and delivery of lines?  Mark up your script to note how different lines, words or phrases should be delivered
4. Blocking: how the the characters positioned on stage, and how are they moving with respect to one another?
   • What other movements can you imagine?
   • What are other characters doing or how are they reacting, as one character speaks?
5. Help your audience: what can you do to underline jokes or convey the meanings of now obscure words or phrases?
6. What props might you include in your performance?
7. What setting might be appropriate?

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