"You speak all your part at once, cues and all"
Reading Shakespeare with Alzheimer's Disease
Keywords:
Twelfth Night, Alzheimer's, Performance StudiesAbstract
This is the story of reading an abridged script of Twelfth Night with a support group for early stage Alzheimer's disease patients. Though the reading was difficult in many ways, the result was a tremendous boost to the self-esteem of the participants because they did something perceived as difficult and worthwhile. The paper looks at why this was such an unexpected success, examines the readers and their challenges, and concludes with the recommendation that Shakespeare or other literature be studied as a therapy for people with Alzheimer's disease.