Looking for new ways to introduce your classroom or student group to Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale? Try out some of the activities, discussion questions and more included below!
EXPLORING THE PLAY
Creative Writing Assignments
- Write an alternative plot line or ending to the play. What would happen if Leontes had listened to his advisors? What if Antigonus had made it back to Sicilia? Track the plot - what is the point of no return?
- Write an recap of the 16 years between Act 3 and Act 4. What do you think happened in Sicilia and Bohemia over the past decade and a half? How did the characters develop and change?
- Build a character diary. Write a letter or note from the perspective of your character to another character in the play. What would they write about? How would they write about it?
- Update the story. If you were adapting The Winter's Tale for 2025, what would you change and what would you keep? Would you represent the relationships between the characters differently today than in 1600? Why?
Visual and Audio Assignments
- Make your own playlist. Go through the play and add music that reminds you of the major plot points to a playlist. What kind of music were you drawn to? What songs remind you of which characters?
- Turn the scene into a meme or comic. Put your artistic skills to use! Pick a scene or act from The Winter's Tale and illustrate the action using your own artistry or building a digital collage.
- Make a Movie. Get a group of your classmates together and choose a scene to act out from the play. Add your own soundtrack, costumes, special effects. OR make a dream cast for your movie/production of The Winter's Tale. Build a pitch deck and explain why the cast would work.
- Make a Get Ready with Me or Fit Check from the perspective of one of the characters in The Winter's Tale. What would they say? How would they get ready?
- Design the worlds of Sicilia and Bohemia. What ways do you choose to show their similarity vs their differences? Make sure to incorporate all senses into establishing these settings.
Put Yourself in the Action
- Go to Court. Imagine you are Hermione's lawyer. What points would you bring up in court against Leontes to attest to your client's innocence? Or reverse it: help build Leontes' case against Hermione using points from the play.
- Present a scene from the play in a modern context. Use contemporary settings, words and ideas.
- Shakespeare makes many allusions throughout The Winter's Tale to heighten his characters' dramatic language. Find an allusion with words you don't recognize and research the phrase's origin and what it means for the character saying it.
- Dramatize a missing scene related to the characters and situation in the play. What does Shakespeare decide to show the audience and what does he choose to have us learn through exposition? Wat would happen if he gave a scene to a moment we learn happened off-stage?
CLASSROOM DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Credits:
Photos by Michael Brosilow, 2025.