Shakespeare's plays are engaged with the complexities of his time, and they also speak to ours. Working with a selection of plays, students will develop skills in the close reading of early-modern drama, learning how character, language, and dramatic form (tragedy, comedy, history, romance) shape meaning. They will analyze the intellectual, moral, social and political issues that Shakespeare explores, especially those involving justice, governance, the family, race, and gender. Because Shakespeare wrote his plays for performance, students will also analyze them as scripts by watching films and through their own performance.