Cast: 12 minimum. This sampler of Shakespearean scenes revolves around the theme of Elizabethan theatre and staging techniques. A central character, the Modern Theatre Student, narrates between scenes and keeps order amid chaos. Her rival for attention is Jacques from As You Like It, who continually wants to "get on with it." Scenes include the plays-within-plays from Hamlet and A Midsummer Night's Dream; the players' relationships with the Elizabethan groundlings as seen in the funeral oration from Julius Caesar and the drunken porter from Macbeth; the girls-disguised-as-boys scene from The Merchant of Venice; the use of excerpts from Pericles, Henry V and Henry VIII; epilogues from The Tempest and A Midsummer Night's Dream; and of course the speech "All the world's a stage," from As You Like It, acted in pantomime. This play is ideally suited for classroom production as it ensures enough parts for everyone while, at the same time, it gently teaches the students about the life and theatre of Shakespeare. Bare stage w/props.