Armstrong High School Teacher Rewrites Shakespeare for Next Generation
A teacher from Armstrong High School is rewriting Shakespeare. His goal: make it more accessible to younger generations.
Class at Armstrong isn’t in session quite yet, but English teacher Anthony Bakke is already thinking about ways to engage his high schoolers.
He’s simplifying literary classics, but it started with his work with ninth-grade English students.
“My favorite part of my job is being in that classroom,” Bakke said.
Maybe that’s because in his classroom, things don’t always look so academic. It looks like stage acting — sword fights, kings in crowns, speaking roles. One of Bakke’s favorite ways to teach Romeo and Juliet is through action.
“When you have kids who are excited to get up in front of the class and read because they think it’s something fun to do… that’s not necessarily normal, when you’re talking about high school kids and Shakespeare,” Bakke said.
His students like it that way. They race to sign up for parts every day as they work through books that may be otherwise intimidating — or for others, boring.
“For Bakke’s class, I mean, this is probably the first time I’ve really enjoyed English class,” said Sebastian Reyes, who took his class last year. “At first, I thought it was going to be the worst unit of my life.”
Quickly, though, Reyes said he learned he was wrong. Bakke didn’t only let the kids take charge of the parts, he also made the story more accessible on the page.
“It was so fun. I mean, it was just a race to get to the characters,” Reyes said.
Reyes reads a passage from Bakke’s translation of Romeo and Juliet. Bakke said his interpretation also tries to interpret the humor in Shakespeare’s original works.
A Modern Twist
“Bakke’s Shakespeare” is just what it sounds: It’s Mr. Bakke’s modern translation of Shakespeare. But it doesn’t go line-by-line. It distills things down to modern language to help teenagers understand the stories. He’s done translations of Romeo and Juliet, as well as Macbeth.
In his class, award-winning author Bakke uses his books as a bridge to major scenes. For example, the first four scenes of Romeo and Juliet are read in Bakke’s translation. The fifth is then read in the original translation.
The students also learn to interpret the complex language as they go, but Bakke said the simplified language helps immerse them in the story. He hopes others use it as a tool, not a replacement for the original text.
The cover art on “Bakke’s Shakespeare.”
All Armstrong ninth-grade English teachers are using Bakke’s Romeo and Juliet in their classrooms, as are some at Cooper High School. His goal is to see it in every classroom; he was delighted to see English-as-a-second-language classrooms using it to help their students comprehend the stories, too.
It all comes down to one thing: why Shakespeare? Bakke’s answer is simple, but twofold: it’s everywhere in our culture, and it’s valuable to understand.
“If you can read Shakespeare and figure out how to make sense of it, then you can do anything,” Bakke said.
You can learn more about Bakke’s books and pick up your own copy on his website. He’s also fundraising to get A Midsummer Nights’ Dream published on his website.
Bakke stands in the English department’s stacks, which are stocked with both of his published Shakespeare translations.
Armstrong High School
