Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream for Kids

Brendan Kelso's rewrite of A Midsummer Night's Dream (AMND) is a dream come true for upper elementary students with a flair for the dramatic. Brendan knows how they speak, and what they would find humorous, without losing the critical moments of the Shakespearean plot in the translation. As a parent who watched the final product of several classes of students who used Mr. Kelso's adaptation, I can tell you that they enjoyed every part of the process of preparing for this play. This was evident in the joy they exuded while performing. The language was not daunting, but actual lines from AMND were still intact. Thank you, Brendan, for making The Bard more accessible to younger students. What a great experience for them! - Amazon Review I'm a dad of three who has had the pleasure of enjoying many school performances. What makes them all special is when the kids were able to include their own personality in the production. It wasn't the fancy lights and scenes that made something memorable. For me it was always when the kids were able to express themselves in their part. In A midsummer Night's Dream, For Kids the author really encourages the participants to go beyond the script, to have fun and include a little of themselves. I can see how this would be really good for kids who are maybe new to the spotlight. This is fun for everyone - for all seasons! - Amazon Review These plays are hilarious and fun! They are extremely useful in multiple settings! I am so glad I happened upon them on Amazon before our Shakespeare classes and club began this year. First, I have used three of them with much success in classes with junior high and high school students, to introduce a given play, resulting not only in much laughter and fun, but great eagerness to begin the real thing. Then, our Shakespeare club for second to sixth grade mostly centered around preparing Playing with Plays: A Midsummer Night's Dream for performance. The kids had a riotous time each week, impressed their parents by inserting bits of Shakespeare lines into everyday conversation, and put on a rollicking performance for friends and family just recently. Yet I continue to hear from parents such things as that their kids were able to recognize elements of the Midsummer plot in a Xena episode, LOL! This is going to stick with them. And, sneakily, we used this play as a wonderful introduction to a performance of the actual play done by older students that same evening. I heard tales of many of our audience members who were Shakespeare-phobic, yet they (and the younger students!) were ready to hear the play in the actual language after being shown this first. An added note: It is SO helpful to have the three versions all built in for different sizes of casts. Our young group used the middle-sized cast version, but we were able to easily add in extra lines from the larger version to further challenge some of the more eager kids. We liked the encouragement to play with the script, too: some of the kids ad-libbed some hilarious physical comedy and even a couple lines that made it into the performance. The audience ate it up, and the cast is so ready for more! If you're teaching Shakespeare to kids of any age, I highly recommend these. My thanks, too, to the author for taking an interest in what we were doing. We felt a little star-struck.: -) - Amazon Review So much fun! My 6 year old daughter recently performed MND from this book and had the best time preparing for it. She took her part very seriously and had great fun practicing. I would hear her in her room sometimes reciting her lines to her stuffed animals, etc., and it brought a smile to my face to realize the passion for theater this kid-friendly book had ignited. The best part was when she told me Mommy, I love thee before going to bed one night: ) - Amazon Review