Below, you will find several activities to complete after reading the entire play. When completing these written activities, be sure to use your imaginations and include as many details as possible. Also, don't forget to always write in full sentences! Feel free to reference the script if you need any help with your responses. Enjoy!
1. Police Report1
Imagine that you are a police officer investigating reports of strange occurrences in the woods outside of Athens. You have interviewed all of the participants, and are going to write a report which summarizes the various comings and goings and activities of the people, NOT fairies, involved. Review your notes, then write your "police report." If you need any help creating your report, click here to see what information you should include. As a police officer, you are not interested in illusion, poetic details, or complex explanations. You must focus on reality. In your report, be sure to include who, what, when, where, and why.
2. Round Characters2
Some of the characters in a Midsummer Night's Dream are round characters. In other words, they undergo psychological growth as a result of their experiences. Other characters move the plot forward, but do not undergo any real, inner change. These are flat characters. Create a chart that categorizes the characters in the play as either round or flat and explain your choices by identifying at least two examples from the text that support your choice. Your chart should look like this:
CHARACTER NAME FLAT or ROUND EXAMPLES
3. Science Connection (EXTRA CREDIT)3
Imagine that you, like the Athenian Tradesmen, need to know when the next full moon will be. Check the newspaper, an almanac, or the internet for information on the phases of the moon. Create a calendar showing what the moon will look like for each night of the coming month. Be sure to make it neat and creative.
4. Write a Letter4
When Bottom is reunited with his friends, they press him for details about what happened, but because of Puck's magic and trickery, he is unable to tell them much about his night in the woods with Titania and the fairies. Imagine that Bottom suddenly is able to remember everything and can share his amazing experiences with his friends. Write a letter from Bottom to his friends telling them everything from being transformed into the head of a donkey, to meeting with the fairies, to falling in love with Titania, the fairy queen. Try to write the way that Bottom speaks, misuse long words for example.
5. The Mind of the Bride 5
Hippolyta is rather embarrassed at times by how the audience makes fun of the tradesmen/performers. At other times, she joins in the fun. Imagine yourself as Hippolyta. Write a brief explanation of why the show was so ridiculous and why you eventually came to enjoy yourself.
6. The Play at the Wedding 6
Identify ways in which Pyramus & Thisbe might not be appropriate for a wedding celebration. Are there any ways in which the play might be appropriate? In what ways is the play-within-a-play an ironic commentary on what the two pairs of young lovers (Demetrius & Helena, Lysander & Hermia) have gone through earlier?
7. Writing About the Play7
In a Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare analyzes the role of imagination in love and in art. He shows the dangers of an overactive imagination and the joy of seeing beyond the everyday world. On a separate piece of paper, write a brief essay about the benefits and drawbacks of an active human imagination. You have the option to draw examples and use quotations from the play.
8. Funny, funny, funny 8
Identify some lines or scenes in A Midsummer Night's Dream that seem funny. What characteristics or events seem to make people laugh the most? Create a list of funny lines or events and be prepared to explain what makes them funny.
9. Create Your Own Production
Choose a scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream that you think would be good to perform for an audience here in school. Would you perform the scene as it is or would you update/modernize the language? Why or why not?
_________________________________________________________________________________
1 http://www.glencoe.com/sec/literature/litlibrary/pdf/midsummer_nights_dream.pdf pg. 23
2 ibid
3ibid
4 ibid pg. 27
5. ibid pg. 31
6. ibid. pg 31.
7. ibid pg. 32
