The Global Stage of Shakespeare and his Contemporaries

Ten worksheets designed to place the works of William Shakespeare and his contemporaries within a global context, with an accompanying teacher guide and presentation slides.

Inspired by the voyages of famous noblemen, the publication of the first modern atlases, and the growth in global trade, early modern playwrights responded to, and helped to perpetuate, the public’s desire for gripping stories involving travel and adventure. By gathering together and presenting contemporary texts of the kind that writers themselves would have consulted - and by featuring newly recorded performances of plays that are now rarely seen on the professional stage - it is hoped that this teaching resource will furnish students with the cultural reference points that they need to make sense of the perspectives held by writers, and by their audiences, on a range of topics that remain highly pertinent today.