This is a great classroom exercise to not only have fun with Shakespeare but to also see how well students can re-frame which ever Shakespeare play they are studying.
This picture is a poster outside Muppet Vision 3D at Disney’s Hollywood studios at Walt Disney World. There’s a lot going on in this poster – it’s a spoof on two different movies – Alien (In space no one can hear you scream) and the Pixar film Wall-E. The poster is pretty much a copy of what the original Wall-E poster looks like, but re-frames it to fit the muppet world of Beaker. I love how they fit in Dr. Bunsen Honeydew!
Shakespeare Character Exercise
Take a character from one genre (a Shakespearean play) and re-frame that character by way of a second genre (e.g. Science Fiction movie) through the medium of poster design. Both genres should be clear on the poster.
Follow the template of the below example for your project.
- Choose a Shakespearean character. (Macbeth)
- Choose a Science Fiction movie. What sci-fi movie could your Shakespearean character star in? (The Terminator)
- Re-frame the title of the Science Fiction movie so that it fits your character. (The Kinginator)
- Create a visual that incorporates elements from both the Shakespeare character and the sci-fi movie. (The character looks like the Terminator but wears a king’s crown.)
- Create a tagline for this new movie that helps describe who the Shakespearean character is and what they do in the play. (He’s going to be King. Or else.)