Any Shakespeare can be tough for high school students—even a zany donkey-filled rom-com. Let's face it: the language is difficult, and we don't talk the way his characters talk (or do we?). Either way, it's hard to get an "at the play" effect in a classroom setting, even if you read the play out loud and divide the parts among your students. Some are usually pretty enthusiastic, but others tend to read in unengaging monotones. Take advantage of the film and cartoon versions of the plays that we've referenced and try to have some of your more theatrical students reenact the scenes they've written in the second activity to heighten their sense of engagement.

This play presents its own particular challenges, too. One is a classic Shakespeare trope, the play-within-a-play. And while it shouldn't be too difficult to separate the Mechanicals' performance of Pyramus and Thisbe from the main play, good ol' Bottom adds to the challenge by constantly breaking character, and suggesting his fellow actors do the same.