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Hello,

Though I am not a teacher, as with most of the people commenting, I run a collegiate student-run shakespeare company. I have acted in 13 early modern shows and directed 4. I would have to agree with the commentary about the language. The easier the language the easier it is to learn and, for that matter, memorize. In Shakespeare's earliest plays he tends to be more metrically strict. In some of the later plays, there is more prose, which is, in my opinion, far harder to interpret and piece together for the untrained ear. I would also suggest choosing shorter plays, so that more attention can be placed on interpreting the language, and would labor a student schedule too heavily. I would say the best plays to start off with would be Midsummer Night's Dream or Comedy of Errors. However, Romeo and Juliet is also a good choice as it is well known and contains less of a subplot than others. Plays that I would suggest straying away from would be The Two Noble Kinsmen (if you count that as Shakespeare), The Winter's Tale, and Love's Labours Lost. Though they are all good plays, WT is hard to understand, because of the 16 year time change and statues coming to life. LLL really needs to be seen or performed to be fully comprehended.