Teaching Twelfth Night, or What You Will

Instructions for You

Objective: Many critics believe Feste, the clown, is actually the wisest character in Twelfth Night. While so many others are acting ridiculously—using disguises, practicing deception, falling in and out of love at the drop of a hat—Feste is able to sit back, observe, and criticize.

In this activity, your students will write a stand-up routine for Feste to make fun of the play's most ludicrous characters and moments. Ideally, this should be a comedy routine. Understandably, though, not everyone was blessed with the comedy gene. So at the least, they should write a monologue for Feste that criticizes various characters, making specific references to their words and actions in the play.

This activity would work best after you've completed the play, because some of the characters definitely make head-scratching decisions in the final scene. Feste will probably be all over that in his criticism. This activity should take 45 minutes to an hour, depending on how much time you want to leave at the end for students to share their stand-up.

Materials Needed: Twelfth Night text, Shmoop's character analysis of Feste, this link to a Bill Engvall comedy routine

Step 1: To help students get a better handle on Feste before they have to write in his voice, have them read Shmoop's analysis of his character. It's short (this step should only take five minutes or so), but we give a few good examples of insults he hurls at those around him. That'll make some great fodder for their comedy.

Step 2: We're going to pretend Feste is omniscient and knows everything that happens in the play. After reading about him, ask your students to mention a few good examples (beyond the ones they just read about in his character analysis) of characters and their follies that are worth mocking. Almost every other character could be subject to this, so there should be no shortage of examples. Here are a few good ones anyway, though:

• Malvolio, for falling for Maria's prank and acting (and dressing) so ridiculously because of her letter
• Sir Andrew, for being duped by Sir Toby into remaining in Ilyria and squandering his money while trying (and failing) to woo Olivia
• Olivia, for falling in love with and marrying a dude she doesn't even know, just because he looks exactly like the (not quite a) dude she already thought she loved
• Antonio, for risking getting arrested for a guy who's just going to marry a girl anyway

This should be a quick step, just to help them get started and get thinking. Five minutes should do the trick.

Step 3: To give your students some familiarity with how a stand-up comedy routine might sound, you can play them the first 3:20 of this clip from comedian Bill Engvall (it's audio only). This is from his popular "Here's your sign" routine—basically saying that stupid people should have to wear a sign that identifies them as being stupid. Kinda sounds like something Feste would say, actually.

Step 4: Talk briefly with your students about what makes Engvall's comedy funny, and how they can incorporate that into their routines for Feste.

• He points out the dumb things people say and do.
• He responds to them with sarcasm.
• He has a hook he keeps returning to (giving the person a sign for being stupid).

Your students have already mentioned some ideas for the dumb things the characters in the play have done that they can mock. They don't need to say, "Here's your sign," but they can definitely ascribe their own brand of sarcasm to Feste as he makes fun of these people in the routine that they write.

Step 5: Now your students are ready to roll with the stand-up routine. They have a choice of two different approaches:

A) They can write a full transcript of Feste's routine, in paragraph form. This will be complete with transitions from one point to the next. If they choose this style, it should be a minimum of 500 words, and Feste must make fun of or criticize at least three different characters. Oh, and they can use modern language for this—no need to sound like Shakespeare.

B) They can instead write a series of 12 to 15 individual insults/criticisms as a series of dialogue blurbs that Feste will throw out at the characters. He still has to target at least three other characters, although he can go after as many characters and their foibles as he likes. And again, they can keep the language modern.

This is the meat of the assignment, so give them about 30 minutes to write out his routine.

Step 6: Remember, this is supposed to be for a performance. So it'd only be fitting for some of your students to perform the routines and insults they wrote (or, if they don't want to get up in front of the room like they're at the Apollo, they can at least read them from their seats). Try to leave a few minutes at the end of the activity for performances before they turn in their work.

Instructions for Your Students

If you've ever read a book for school and wanted to really rip into some of the characters but felt like you'd get in trouble if you did, you're in luck—this activity is designed specifically for you to mock how ridiculous some of these characters are.

You're going to act as Feste the clown, he of the razor-sharp wit and equally sharp tongue. Your job is to write a version of his stand-up routine, where he'll take aim at his fellow characters from the play and all the absurdity they take part in.

Step 1: Just to make sure you remember Feste and why he's important, spend a few minutes reading our analysis of him. It's short, but it says a lot about him, and we provide a few examples of things he already makes fun of other characters for.

Step 2: See if you can recall any other examples of stupidity or ridiculousness from the play that are worth making fun of. You can volunteer them in this quick class discussion. And you'd be wise to copy any examples your classmates mention that you might want to use, too.

Step 3: Check out the first 3:20 of this clip from comedian Bill Engvall's stand-up routine. You know what he makes fun of people for? Being stupid. You know what you're going to have Feste make fun of the other characters for? Being stupid. Sounds like a perfect fit to get a feel for this type of comedy.

Step 4: What actually makes Engvall's comedy funny? What techniques does he use? And how can you use that when you write for Feste? See what you and your classmates can come up with when you discuss this with your teacher.

Step 5: Now you're ready to roll with Feste's stand-up routine. You have a choice of two different approaches:

A) You can write a full transcript of Feste's routine, in paragraph form. This will be complete with transitions from one point to the next. If you choose this style, it should be a minimum of 500 words, and Feste must make fun of or criticize at least three different characters. Oh, and you can use modern language for this—no need to sound like Shakespeare.

B) You can instead write a series of 12 to 15 individual insults/criticisms as a series of dialogue blurbs that Feste will throw out at the characters. He still has to target at least three others, although he can go after as many more than that as he likes. And again, you can use modern language.

Step 6: Remember, this is supposed to be for a performance. So it'd only be fitting for you to perform the routines and insults you wrote (or, if you don't want to get up in front of the room like you're at the Apollo, you can at least read them from your seat).