Scaffolded learning: a model of historically informed performance practice and action research in Rehearsing Shakespeare

Abstract

This article demonstrates how the action research spiral was used to develop and teach two versions of a second-year university subject called Rehearsing Shakespeare. The course explored historically informed rehearsal practices in order to demonstrate how working actors in the early modern theatre used Shakespeare’s texts as tools for performance. The article reveals how the concept of ‘scaffolding’, used to train apprentice actors in the early modern theatre, became central to the development of the course.