A foolproof, enormously fun method of teaching your children the classic works of William Shakespeare William Shakespeare’s plays are among the great bedrocks of Western civilization and contain the finest writing of the past 450 years. Many of the best novels, plays, poetry, and films in the English language produced since Shakespeare’s death in 1616—from Jane Austen to The Godfather—are heavily influenced by Shakespeare’s stories, characters, language, and themes. In a sense, his works are a kind of Bible for the modern world, bringing us together intellectually and spiritually. Hamlet, Juliet, Macbeth, Ophelia, and a vast array of other singular Shakespearean characters have become the archetypes of our consciousness. To know some Shakespeare provides a head start in life. In How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare, acclaimed playwright Ken Ludwig provides the tools you need to instill an understanding, and a love, of Shakespeare’s works in your children, and to have fun together along the way. Ken Ludwig devised his methods while teaching his own children, and his approach is friendly and easy to master. Beginning with memorizing short specific passages from Shakespeare's plays, this method then instills children with cultural references they will utilize for years to come. Ludwig’s approach includes understanding of the time period and implications of Shakespeare’s diction as well as the invaluable lessons behind his words and stories. Colorfully incorporating the history of Shakespearean theater and society, How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare guides readers on an informed and adventurous journey through the world in which the Bard wrote. This book’s simple process allows anyone to impart to children the wisdom of plays like A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet. And there’s fun to be had along the way. Shakespeare novices and experts, and readers of all ages, will each find something delightfully irresistible in How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare.

How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare

Literature & Fiction

Ludwig, Ken

History & Criticism

Crown

Winner of the Falstaff Award for Best Shakespeare Book, How To Teach Your Children Shakespeare is a foolproof, enormously fun method of teaching your children the classic works of William Shakespeare by Tony-Award winning playwright, Ken Ludwig. To know some Shakespeare provides a head start in life. His plays are among the great bedrocks of Western civilization and contain the finest writing of the past 450 years. Many of the best novels, plays, poems, and films in the English language produced since Shakespeare’s death in 1616—from Pride and Prejudice to The Godfather—are heavily influenced by Shakespeare’s stories, characters, language, and themes. In How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare, acclaimed playwright Ken Ludwig provides the tools you need to inspire an understanding, and a love, of Shakespeare’s works in your children, and to have fun together along the way. Ken Ludwig devised his friendly, easy-to-master methods while teaching his own children. Beginning with memorizing short passages from the plays, his technique then instills children with cultural references they will utilize for years to come. Ludwig’s approach includes understanding of the time period and implications of Shakespeare’s diction as well as the invaluable lessons behind his words and stories. Colorfully incorporating the history of Shakespearean theater and society, How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare guides readers on an informed and adventurous journey through the world in which the Bard wrote. This book’s simple process allows anyone to impart to children the wisdom of plays like A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet. And there’s fun to be had throughout. Shakespeare novices and experts and readers of all ages will each find something delightfully irresistible in How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare.

Dramas & Plays

A concert in Ohio in 1934 is jeopardized when the lead Italian tenor falls into a drunken'stupor. So the impresario's diminutive assistant blacks up and goes on as Otello. The tenor awakens, dons his costume, and thence follows a hilarious comedy involving two Otellos, a volatile Italian wife, an outrageous bellhop and a cynical impresario.

Lend Me a Tenor

Samuel French Ltd.

Musical comedy Book and Lyrics by Adolph Green and Betty Comden
 Music by Cy Coleman
 Based on a play by Ben Hecht and Charles McArthur and also a play by Bruce Milholland 
 Characters: 17 Principal roles, plus chorus (doubling possible) 
Whether performed with elaborate scenery or on a simple scale, this brilliantly comic musical appeals to audiences everywhere. As in the classic original, the story concerns the efforts of a flamboyant theatrical impresario Oscar Jaffe to persuade glamorous film star (and former amour) Lily Garland to appear in his next production while outwitting rival producers, creditors and religious nut Letitcia Primrose. And all this before the 20th Century Ltd. reaches NYC! 
"Spectacular, funny and elegant...civilized wit and wild humor."-The New York Times 
"A perfect musical...A gorgeous show!"-New York Post 
"A rare delight: a musical that tells a story and does so with delicious wit. A hilarious American sequel to My Fair Lady."-Hartford Courant

Twentieth Century

Hecht, Ben

MacArthur, Charles

Romance

Concord Theatricals

Comedy / 4m, 4f / Unit set Charlotte and George Hay, an acting couple not exactly the Lunts are on tour in Buffalo in 1953 with a repertory consisting of Cyrano de Bergerac "revised, one nostril version" and Noel Coward's Private Lives. This backstage farce by the author of Lend Me a Tenor brought Carol Burnett back to Broadway co-starring with Philip Bosco as her megalomanic, drunken husband and leading man. Fate has given these thespians one more shot at starring roles in The Scarlet Pimperne

Moon Over Buffalo

Comedy / 5m, 3f / Unit set. In this hilarious comedy by the author of Lend Me A Tenor and Moon Over Buffalo , two English Shakespearean actors, Jack and Leo, find themselves so down on their luck that they are performing "Scenes from Shakespeare" on the Moose Lodge circuit in the Amish country of Pennsylvania. When they hear that an old lady in York, PA is about to die and leave her fortune to her two long lost English nephews, they resolve to pass themselves off as her beloved relatives and get the cash. The trouble is, when they get to York, they find out that the relatives aren't nephews, but nieces! Romantic entanglements abound, especially when Leo falls head-over-petticoat in love with the old lady's vivacious niece, Meg, who's engaged to the local minister. Meg knows that there's a wide world out there, but it's not until she meets "Maxine and Stephanie" that she finally gets a taste of it. "Ken Ludwig is a national treasure. He has almost single-handedly kept alive the sense of humor of Philip Barry, Billy Wilder, Preston Sturgis, George S. Kaufman, and the Marx Brothers. With Lend Me a Tenor and Moon Over Buffalo, Ludwig established himself as the American playwright to look to for the fast and furious comedic stylings of those masters...Slapstick goofiness, scrambled Shakespeare, and good-natured laughs make Leading Ladies an irresistible treat." - Montana Reperatory Theatre "Ludwig's newest farce is so funny, it will make sophisticated and reasonable men and women of the 21st century cackle till their faces hurt." - Houston Press "Leading Ladies is consistently funny-indeed, increasingly hilarious as it progresses." - Houston Chronicle

Leading Ladies (Samuel French)

Winner! of the 2004 Helen Hayes Award for Best New Play It's 1934, and Shakespeare's most famous fairies, Oberon and Puck, have magically materialized on the Warner Bros. Hollywood set of Max Reinhardt's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Instantly smitten by the glitz and glamour of show biz, the two are ushered onto the silver screen to play (who else?) themselves. With a little help from a feisty flower, blonde bombshells, movie moguls, and arrogant "asses" are tossed into loopy love triangles, with raucous results. The mischievous magic of moviedom sparkles in this hilarious comic romp.

Ken Ludwig's Shakespeare in Hollywood

From the play by George Farquhar
Comedy
Characters: 8 male, 5female, with doubling 
Various Locations 
The play tells the story of two young bucks who, having spent all their money by living too well, leave London and roam from town to town in search of love and fortune. In order to find a wealthy heiress for at least one of them, they pose as master and servant - exchanging roles from one town to the next. In Lichfield, Aimwell is the master and Archer the servant, and there they meet the lovely, wealthy Dorinda and her equally desirable sister-in-law, Mrs. Kate Sullen. They set their caps for these women, but problems abound. Kate is married to a drunken sot who despises her; the innkeeper's saucy daughter, Cherry, has set her cap for Archer; Dorinda's mother, Lady Bountiful, mistakenly believes herself to be a great healer of the sick, and she guards her daughter like a dragoness; and a band of brigands plans to rob the house of Lady Bountiful that very night, putting all schemes in jeopardy. This is a play in the great tradition of Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer and Sheridan's The Rivals and The School for Scandal. It is classic, formal, robust and hilarious. 
"A delightful romp ... A sparklingly funny evening that... plays very well indeed." - Potomac Stages 
"A sparkling production ... The dialogue crackles, the characters engage the audience's interest and sympathy, and the whole thing seems almost effortless."-Talkinbroadway.com

The Beaux' Stratagem

Farquhar, George

WILDER, Thornton

Winner! 2009 AATE Distinguished Play Award, Best Adaptation Based on the masterful adventure novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island is a stunning yarn of piracy on the tropical seas. It begins at an inn on the Devon coast of England in 1775 and quickly becomes an unforgettable tale of treachery and mayhem featuring a host of legendary swashbucklers including the dangerous Billy Bones (played unforgettably in the movies by Lionel Barrymore), the sinister two-timin

Ken Ludwig's Treasure Island

STEVENSON, ROBERT LOUIS

Full Length, Comedy
Charaters: 3 male, 3 female
The play tells the story of John, an irascible Scotsman and an uptight English woman, Maude, both in their late 50s, who take on the journey of a lifetime. They are brought together when his ward marries her niece. Then, when the young couple decides to adopt a new born baby, the older couple has to travel 6,000 miles to California to pick up the child and bring her safely home to Scotland. The problem is, John and Maude despise each other. To make matters worse, they get stranded in San Francisco for several weeks and are expected to jointly care for the helpless newborn. There they form a new partnership and learn some startling lessons about life and love.

Be My Baby

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Ludwig, Ken. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Ludwig, Ken

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Ludwig, Ken. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare

How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare

Lend Me a Tenor

Twentieth Century

Moon Over Buffalo

Leading Ladies (Samuel French)

Ken Ludwig's Shakespeare in Hollywood

The Beaux' Stratagem

Ken Ludwig's Treasure Island

Be My Baby