Ken Ludwig
Author of How to teach your children Shakespeare
About the Author
Ken Ludwig is an internationally acclaimed playwright who has had numerous hits on Broadway, in London, and throughout the world. His plays and musicals include Lend Me a 'Tenor, which won two Tony Awards, and Crazy for You. which won the Tom Award for Best Musical. He has also won two Laurence show more Olivier Awards and the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America. His work has been commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company, and his plays have been performed in over thirty countries in more than twenty languages. show less
Works by Ken Ludwig
Crazy for You (Prompt Book) 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1950-03-15
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Haverford College
Harvard Law School - Short biography
- KEN LUDWIG is an internationally acclaimed playwright whose many hits on Broadway, in London's West End and throughout the world have made his name synonymous with modern comedy. He has had six shows on Broadway and six in the West End, and he has won the Laurence Olivier Award, England’s highest theatre honor, as well as three Tony Award nominations and two Helen Hayes Awards. His work has been commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company and has been performed in thirty countries in over twenty languages. His musical Crazy For You ran for over four years on Broadway and in London. After a hit revival production at The Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park this summer, it will open on the West End in October. Lend Me A Tenor, originally produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber and recently revived on Broadway with an all-star cast, was called “one of the two great farces by a living writer” by The New York Times. Other plays and musicals include Moon Over Buffalo (Broadway & London’s Old Vic, starring Carol Burnett, Lynn Redgrave, Joan Collins & Frank Langella); Twentieth Century (Broadway, starring Alec Baldwin & Anne Heche); The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Broadway); Treasure Island (London, Theatre Royal, Haymarket; 2009 AATE Distinguished Play Award for Best Adaptation); Shakespeare in Hollywood (commissioned by The Royal Shakespeare Company, Helen Hayes Award as Best Play); Leading Ladies; Be My Baby (starring Hal Holbrook and Dixie Carter); The Beaux' Stratagem (adaptation with Thornton Wilder at the request of the Wilder Estate); The Three Musketeers (Bristol Old Vic); An American in Paris; Sullivan & Gilbert; The Fox on the Fairway; The Game’s Afoot, Midsummer/Jersey, and The Hound of the Baskervilles. His children’s play ’Twas the Night Before Christmas will premiere this November at The Adventure Theatre. His work has appeared in The Yale Review, and he is writing a book for Crown Publishing entitled How To Teach Your Children Shakespeare. He studied music at Harvard with Leonard Bernstein and theatre history at Cambridge University in England. For more information, please visit www.kenludwig.com.
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- York, Pennsylvania, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- Pennsylvania, USA
Members
Reviews
I had so much fun reading this book. If you always have loved the writing of Shakespeare, or, better yet, wanted to love it but just didn’t get it, this is the book for you!
How To Teach Your Children Shakespeare is by an acclaimed playwright who hopes to provide you with the tools to help you and your children make Shakespeare a part of your lives. He shows you how to make Shakespeare both informative and fun. He writes:
"Shakespeare should not be an occasional visitor. He should be a show more permanent houseguest, living in that spare room down the hall, ready to join you for a meal or an evening whenever you crave his company. Better yet, he should feel like a part of your family...”
With passion and enthusiasm, he sets out to convince you how to do just that, providing plenty of guidance.
I don’t know how well this book would work on kids, but it certainly helped me to understand Shakespeare better than I ever did, and I studied Shakespeare extensively in college.
He goes through many passages adding “translations,” as in this example:
"I have of late [recently],
but wherefore [why] I know not,
lost all my mirth [cheerfulness]”
If the speech might be particularly abstruse for modern audiences, he uses two columns, with Shakespeare’s words on the left, and a summary of their meaning on the right. He also explains the imagery and importance of the passages, and why they are considered so masterful. For instance, in discussing Hamlet, he observes:
"The Ghost fills Hamlet’s ear with the details of his own murder the way Claudius filled King Hamlet’s ear with poison. This paradox underscores an important question: Is the Ghost lying or telling the truth? Are his words reliable or poisonous? This is something that Hamlet will spend the next two acts of the play trying to find out.”
I loved too how he demonstrates the way in which Shakespeare manipulated word length and alliteration to slow down or speed up delivery of lines for dramatic effect.
He even provides ideas for entertaining ways to encourage your children to incorporate some of Shakespeare’s bot mots into your own lives. For example, here is how the author's daughter echoes Falstaff from Henry IV, Part I:
"Our daughter, Olivia, stays up past her bedtime and her mother catches her in bed with her computer.
Mom
Olivia, what do you think you’re doing?
Olivia
Why, Mom, ‘tis my vocation, Mom. ‘Tis no sin for a girl to labor in her vocation.’”
As he explains at the outset, in answer to the question “Why Shakespeare?”:
"...Shakespeare isn’t just one of the many great authors in the English language; Shakespeare is, indisputably, one of the two great bedrocks of Western civilization in English. (The other is the King James translation of the Bible.) Not only do Shakespeare’s plays themselves contain the finest writing of the past 450 years, but most of the best novels, plays, poetry, and films in the English language produced since Shakespeare’s death in 1616 - from Jane Austen to Charles Dickens, from Ulysses to The Godfather - are heavily influenced by Shakespeare’s stories, characters, language, and themes.”
Evaluation: I truly enjoyed this book; it gave me so many new insights into the wonderful world of Shakespeare, and allowed me to enjoy his work in an entirely new way. Highly recommended even without any potential pupils besides yourself! show less
How To Teach Your Children Shakespeare is by an acclaimed playwright who hopes to provide you with the tools to help you and your children make Shakespeare a part of your lives. He shows you how to make Shakespeare both informative and fun. He writes:
"Shakespeare should not be an occasional visitor. He should be a show more permanent houseguest, living in that spare room down the hall, ready to join you for a meal or an evening whenever you crave his company. Better yet, he should feel like a part of your family...”
With passion and enthusiasm, he sets out to convince you how to do just that, providing plenty of guidance.
I don’t know how well this book would work on kids, but it certainly helped me to understand Shakespeare better than I ever did, and I studied Shakespeare extensively in college.
He goes through many passages adding “translations,” as in this example:
"I have of late [recently],
but wherefore [why] I know not,
lost all my mirth [cheerfulness]”
If the speech might be particularly abstruse for modern audiences, he uses two columns, with Shakespeare’s words on the left, and a summary of their meaning on the right. He also explains the imagery and importance of the passages, and why they are considered so masterful. For instance, in discussing Hamlet, he observes:
"The Ghost fills Hamlet’s ear with the details of his own murder the way Claudius filled King Hamlet’s ear with poison. This paradox underscores an important question: Is the Ghost lying or telling the truth? Are his words reliable or poisonous? This is something that Hamlet will spend the next two acts of the play trying to find out.”
I loved too how he demonstrates the way in which Shakespeare manipulated word length and alliteration to slow down or speed up delivery of lines for dramatic effect.
He even provides ideas for entertaining ways to encourage your children to incorporate some of Shakespeare’s bot mots into your own lives. For example, here is how the author's daughter echoes Falstaff from Henry IV, Part I:
"Our daughter, Olivia, stays up past her bedtime and her mother catches her in bed with her computer.
Mom
Olivia, what do you think you’re doing?
Olivia
Why, Mom, ‘tis my vocation, Mom. ‘Tis no sin for a girl to labor in her vocation.’”
As he explains at the outset, in answer to the question “Why Shakespeare?”:
"...Shakespeare isn’t just one of the many great authors in the English language; Shakespeare is, indisputably, one of the two great bedrocks of Western civilization in English. (The other is the King James translation of the Bible.) Not only do Shakespeare’s plays themselves contain the finest writing of the past 450 years, but most of the best novels, plays, poetry, and films in the English language produced since Shakespeare’s death in 1616 - from Jane Austen to Charles Dickens, from Ulysses to The Godfather - are heavily influenced by Shakespeare’s stories, characters, language, and themes.”
Evaluation: I truly enjoyed this book; it gave me so many new insights into the wonderful world of Shakespeare, and allowed me to enjoy his work in an entirely new way. Highly recommended even without any potential pupils besides yourself! show less
I don't have kids, but I love Shakespeare and I teach high school English, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Ludwig's passion for Shakespeare is infectious, and his commentary on the passages he selects is insightful but accessible. Even as someone who has read and reread and studied each of the plays he explores in this book, I found myself learning new things, seeing passages in a new light or from a fascinating new perspective -- which probably speaks to the richness of show more Shakespeare as much as to Ludwig's talents as an author and a guide. Ultimately, when I put the book down, I wanted nothing so much as to pick up Hamlet or MacBeth and reread them for the nth time... which I think speaks very strongly to the success of this book. show less
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
For years I’ve been shaking my head over why my sister and Jim staged their wedding in a post office. She liked the setting, the logic of which seemed inadequate as they were both raised Catholic.
Jack and Louise married in a Federal Post Office in Brooklyn for much sounder reasons: they had a wartime romance via snail mail, implicating the Post Office as Cupid with a mail pouch. I know this was the setting for their union because Arena Stage in DC put on this tribute play of Jack show more Ludwig’s to his parents a few years back. As part of a promotional effort and, I think, fundraiser I received a series of replica correspondence and telegrams between them over a couple months, ending with their wedding invitation, citing the post office in Brooklyn for their nuptials.
I don’t know half as much about my parent’s courtship as I now know of Jack and Lou’s, sadly. My folks were in high school during the war, met in college, married after graduating. All their courtship was with groups of happy coeds relieved of the uncertainty and scarcity of wartime. So I’m grateful for Ludwig’s piece that provides some insight into the mood of the times, veiled affection and intimacy in loving letters between his parents as their romance blossomed from afar, with a sweetness and seriousness only possible before the bald familiar social tyranny and transparency of email and sexting and the internet. Blech.
The playbook that came with the letters via Arena Stage is, delightfully, signed by the playwright. How lucky for me. Just discovered this as it has taken me this long to get around to reading the letters and all and noticing the Ludwig inscription. Three years into the COVID era and two months into the flatness of winter seemed just the perfect time. The play begins in the cheeriest of manners, expresses the impatience of a budding long distance romance between equals, the seriousness of world events all too capable of crushing dreams of happiness and longevity, and stages the ultimate union in the best of all places—an exhilarating, massive Times Square celebration. Then it ends with a happy union in the sacred space of a federal institution that persists to this day in uniting people across great distances, the Brooklyn Post Office.
We should all be as reverent and devoted as Ludwig in honoring the union of our own parents as to write a play or book or psalm about them, if for no other reason as to acknowledge that the improbability of our existence rests on the sustained intentionality of love with a purpose: happiness ever after with a kindred soul who brings out the best in you. Lovely charming play and couple, Jack and Lou. show less
Jack and Louise married in a Federal Post Office in Brooklyn for much sounder reasons: they had a wartime romance via snail mail, implicating the Post Office as Cupid with a mail pouch. I know this was the setting for their union because Arena Stage in DC put on this tribute play of Jack show more Ludwig’s to his parents a few years back. As part of a promotional effort and, I think, fundraiser I received a series of replica correspondence and telegrams between them over a couple months, ending with their wedding invitation, citing the post office in Brooklyn for their nuptials.
I don’t know half as much about my parent’s courtship as I now know of Jack and Lou’s, sadly. My folks were in high school during the war, met in college, married after graduating. All their courtship was with groups of happy coeds relieved of the uncertainty and scarcity of wartime. So I’m grateful for Ludwig’s piece that provides some insight into the mood of the times, veiled affection and intimacy in loving letters between his parents as their romance blossomed from afar, with a sweetness and seriousness only possible before the bald familiar social tyranny and transparency of email and sexting and the internet. Blech.
The playbook that came with the letters via Arena Stage is, delightfully, signed by the playwright. How lucky for me. Just discovered this as it has taken me this long to get around to reading the letters and all and noticing the Ludwig inscription. Three years into the COVID era and two months into the flatness of winter seemed just the perfect time. The play begins in the cheeriest of manners, expresses the impatience of a budding long distance romance between equals, the seriousness of world events all too capable of crushing dreams of happiness and longevity, and stages the ultimate union in the best of all places—an exhilarating, massive Times Square celebration. Then it ends with a happy union in the sacred space of a federal institution that persists to this day in uniting people across great distances, the Brooklyn Post Office.
We should all be as reverent and devoted as Ludwig in honoring the union of our own parents as to write a play or book or psalm about them, if for no other reason as to acknowledge that the improbability of our existence rests on the sustained intentionality of love with a purpose: happiness ever after with a kindred soul who brings out the best in you. Lovely charming play and couple, Jack and Lou. show less
This gem is a book built to help introduce your children to Shakespeare, but it would work as an introduction for adults as well. It’s also a great way to dive deeper into the world of Shakespeare even if you’re already a fan. I felt like I learned quite a bit while reading it, because it isn’t dumbed down for kids, it’s just simplified.
Ludwig's passion for Shakespeare is infectious. He finds joy in the work and beautifully explains how to make that joy accessible to anyone who reads show more the Bard. He makes you appreciate each lovely line while giving an overview of the plays, Shakespeare's life and the depth of his work.
“… Shakespeare was fearlessly true to life. Throughout his plays we see not only comedy and not only tragedy but also, always, the truth.”
Ludwig breaks down some of Shakespeare’s most famous plays to make them accessible. He focuses quite a bit on memorization, but that’s just one aspect of the book. He explains plots and language, the difference between prose and poetry, provides character break downs, and walks us through beautiful speeches and what they mean. He explains the way Shakespeare used the cadence of the language to help the actors pace their performances.
He takes some of the famous soliloquies, especially from Hamlet, and breaks them down in a side-by-side comparison. He gives the reader Shakespeare’s words next to his own paraphrase in modern language. It’s incredibly helpful for adults as well as kids. It helps readers understand the full meaning behind some of well-known lines.
One of my favorite things Ludwig does in the book is offer a context for Shakespeare’s work. He looks at the author’s life, England during that time period and the order in which the plays were written. Understanding that The Tempest was written later in life and The Taming of the Shrew was an early work helps readers understand the increased tone of gravitas n even his comedies.
At the end of the book he also includes an extensive bibliography of both books and films to further your children’s or your exploration of Shakespeare. I love that in addition to listing the books and movies he gives some background and his opinion of them.
BOTTOM LINE: Beautifully written and incredibly accessible, this book is sure to ignite a love of Shakespeare in anyone who is interested!
*The book covers the following plays: Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Henry IV, As You Like It, Henry V, and The Tempest.
“Shakespeare’s plays, like all great works of art, are open to interpretation. That is the hallmark of art that has real value. If a work is static and never changes, then it can never tell us very much about how we change over our lifetimes, and how mankind changes over centuries. As Hamlet says, it is the artist’s job to hold the mirror up to nature.”
“Toward the end of his life, Rossini said of Mozart: ‘He was the inspiration of my youth, the despair of my middle years and the consolation of my old age.’ We want Shakespeare to be all those things for your children.” show less
Ludwig's passion for Shakespeare is infectious. He finds joy in the work and beautifully explains how to make that joy accessible to anyone who reads show more the Bard. He makes you appreciate each lovely line while giving an overview of the plays, Shakespeare's life and the depth of his work.
“… Shakespeare was fearlessly true to life. Throughout his plays we see not only comedy and not only tragedy but also, always, the truth.”
Ludwig breaks down some of Shakespeare’s most famous plays to make them accessible. He focuses quite a bit on memorization, but that’s just one aspect of the book. He explains plots and language, the difference between prose and poetry, provides character break downs, and walks us through beautiful speeches and what they mean. He explains the way Shakespeare used the cadence of the language to help the actors pace their performances.
He takes some of the famous soliloquies, especially from Hamlet, and breaks them down in a side-by-side comparison. He gives the reader Shakespeare’s words next to his own paraphrase in modern language. It’s incredibly helpful for adults as well as kids. It helps readers understand the full meaning behind some of well-known lines.
One of my favorite things Ludwig does in the book is offer a context for Shakespeare’s work. He looks at the author’s life, England during that time period and the order in which the plays were written. Understanding that The Tempest was written later in life and The Taming of the Shrew was an early work helps readers understand the increased tone of gravitas n even his comedies.
At the end of the book he also includes an extensive bibliography of both books and films to further your children’s or your exploration of Shakespeare. I love that in addition to listing the books and movies he gives some background and his opinion of them.
BOTTOM LINE: Beautifully written and incredibly accessible, this book is sure to ignite a love of Shakespeare in anyone who is interested!
*The book covers the following plays: Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Henry IV, As You Like It, Henry V, and The Tempest.
“Shakespeare’s plays, like all great works of art, are open to interpretation. That is the hallmark of art that has real value. If a work is static and never changes, then it can never tell us very much about how we change over our lifetimes, and how mankind changes over centuries. As Hamlet says, it is the artist’s job to hold the mirror up to nature.”
“Toward the end of his life, Rossini said of Mozart: ‘He was the inspiration of my youth, the despair of my middle years and the consolation of my old age.’ We want Shakespeare to be all those things for your children.” show less
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.Lists
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