CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM

On the search for some captivating and creative ways to get your classroom interested and talking about A Midsummer Night's Dream? Take a look through some of our activities, discussion questions and more for inspiration or in-class use!

EXPLORING THE PLAY

Creative Writing Assignments

• Write an alternative ending to the play. What might happen to Lysander and Hermia if they didn't get lost on their way to elope? Would Demetrius and Helena end up together in the end? Would Oberon and Titania?
• Build a character diary. Write a letter or note from the perspective of one 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 A Midsummer Night's Dream 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?
• Draw a comic of a scene. Put your artistic skills to use! Pick a scene or act from A Midsummer Night's Dream and illustrate the action.
• 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 A Midsummer Night's Dream. Build a pitch deck and explain why your creative decisions would work.
• Make a Get Ready with Me from the perspective of one of the characters in A Midsummer Night's Dream. What would they say? How would they get ready?

LEARNING THE LANGUAGE

• 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? What would happen if he gave a scene to a moment we learn happened off-stage?
• Present a scene from the play in a modern context. Use contemporary settings, words and ideas.
• Present a prepared reading of a speech by a single character, between two characters, or of an entire scene. What do you notice about the words and how they feel from character to character and moment to moment?
• What is Iambic Pentameter and why did Shakespeare choose to write in this style for moments of the play? Write a synopsis poem of Midsummer using only Iambic Pentameter.
• Shakespeare makes many allusions throughout A Midsummer Night's Dream 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.

CLASSROOM DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

INDEPENDENT LEARNING PROJECTS