Shakespeare comes to life in 12 year old student’s stop action lego film

Leeyanne Moore's student, Adam T, 13, is from the Bay Area of San Francisco. He created a stop action lego film as a special project when he was 12. The stop action lego film depicts a scene from Two Gentlemen of Verona.

CONTEXT FOR THE SCENE: What's happened before: Valentine (in Red and Pink) is planning to steal away with Silvia, daughter of the Duke of Milan. Valentine doesn't know that the Duke has been told about Valentine's plan. Act III, Scene i set up: Valentine has brought a rope ladder concealed under his cloak to get her down from her tower at night and plans to hide it in the bushes but the Duke of Milan (in blue) is waiting for him.

SUMMARY OF THE FILM: The Duke plays with Valentine at first, letting Val know that he's going to disown his daughter Silvia, so she won't be rich. When Valentine doesn't slink away, the Duke then says he wants to woo a lady, but doesn't know how. He demands Valentine's advice: how to go about it? Valentine, rather uncomfortable, after suggesting jewels and other gifts, finds the Duke wishes visit the lady at night in her tower. The Duke points out that he has no way to get up to her window in the tower--how can he succeed? Valentine, not too bright, finds himself suggesting that there's nothing easier than to get a rope ladder for getting up into a tower and hiding it under one's cloak. Then the Duke wonders: does Valentine mean a cloak like his own? Valentine does. But what is Valentine hiding under his cloak? The rope ladder is discovered and a chase ensues.

HISTORY OF WORKING WITH ADAM: I started working with Adam when he was eleven. Clearly a gifted student, there was almost no point in giving Adam ordinary quizzes or tests. He aces them almost perfectly every time. We set about on an educational adventure that I wanted to be challenging, fulfilling, and creative. As Adam mastered various pedagogical skills and analytic critical thinking skills at the level of a college student, it also became clear that Adam had a strong creative side. He was an excellent writer with a facility in writing stories, autobiographical sketches, and poetry.

THE PROJECT: Given his creative bent, I decided to hone in one one area where I thought Adam excelled, but could build more confidence: creative problem solving. Originally, I wanted Adam to direct a scene from Two Gentlemen of Verona. I thought that this would make him see the structure of Shakespeare's first comedy more clearly and enrich his appreciation for the humor in the play. However, Adam came back with a request to create a stop action film with legos instead. I was delighted!

THE PROCESS: First we discussed my expectations for the project--that Adam would create lego characters, costumes, sets, and props, and then work out the blocking of the characters in the film. He would use these characters to create two short stop action movie scenes out of legos for his final project on Two Gentlemen of Verona. I requested that he speak the lines for the characters in the scenes.

He then proposed a timeline to his mom, which they wrote up, and then he got to work. Filming the scenes first with a stop action program, he would then play the film in the app while recording the film with a camera phone as he spoke the lines for each scene. After dubbing his voice over the stop action film, he presented me with a rough cut of his two scenes from Two Gentlemen of Verona. 

The rough cut he showed me was pretty good, but Adam spoke all his lines in a whisper. I asked why, and he said the project took so long that in order to make the deadline for our class, he was filming late at night and didn't want to wake up his parents. (!) I gave my notes, extended his deadline, and asked that he film the final version during daylight hours so he could speak clearly at a good volume. Above is the end result of one of the scenes.

HOW SPECIAL PROJECTS CAN ENHANCE LEARNING: This project let Adam's executive function skills shine. We were both proud of his work. He had a myriad of problems to solve and to combine many elements together into a whole--much as one must integrate various elements in a successful essay. (For Two Gentlemen of Verona, he also wrote a short argument paper on three ways in which clever servants create audience pleasing effects in Shakespearean plays.)

THE FUN OF SPECIAL PROJECTS: We are all happy that Adam got to share these stop action scenes with his parents and with you, because I'm not sure I've ever heard a person Adam's age speak Shakespeare so well or understood Shakespeare's meaning so clearly--have you? Sharing his talent and hard work is exciting. Moreover, a special project like this can help to capture the idea that learning is fun, that it can challenging in sublime ways, and that learning can take a myriad forms. This special project encapsulates my deepest philosophy about what a fulfilling delight education can be for any age.

As always, if you or someone you’re raising needs writing related instruction and would like to try two free sessions, please contact me in the contact form. We can chat about your writing goals to see if I can help.