The Roadmap

[from June 2009; revised May 2014; March 2015; June 2015]

Here’s the schedule (* means I’ve read the play before; ** means I’ve taught the play before):

Title Date Written (range?) Discussion date
The Comedy of Errors* 1590 (? – 1594) July 2009
Titus Andronicus 1590 (? – 1594) August 2009
The Taming of the Shrew** 1591 (? – 1594) September 2009
Henry VI Part 1 1592 (? – 1592) October 2009
Henry VI Part 2 1591 (? – 1592) November 2009
Henry VI Part 3 1591 (? – 1592) December 2009
Richard III** 1592 (1592 – 1597) January 2010
Love’s Labor’s Lost 1593 (? – 1597) February 2010
The Two Gentlemen of Verona 1593 (? – 1598) March 2010
A Midsummer Night’s Dream** 1594 (1594 – 1598) April 2010
Romeo and Juliet** 1595 (? – 1597) May 2010
King John 1596 (? – 1598) September 2010
The Merchant of Venice* 1596 (1594 – 1598) October 2010
Richard II* 1595 (1595 – 1597) November 2010
Henry IV Part 1* 1596 (1595 – 1598) December 2010
Henry IV Part 2* 1597 (1596 – 1598) January 2011
Henry V* 1599 (1599) February 2011
The Merry Wives of Windsor** 1597 (1597 – 1602) March 2011
As You Like It* 1598 (1598 – 1600) July 2014
Much Ado About Nothing** 1598 (1598 – 1600) September 2014
Julius Caesar** 1599 (1598 – 1599) November 2014
Twelfth Night* 1600 (1600 – 1602) January 2015
Hamlet* 1601 (1599 – 1601) March 2015
Troilus and Cressida 1602 (1601 – 1603) June 2015
All’s Well That Ends Well 1603 (1598 – ?) August 2015
Measure For Measure* 1604 (1598 – 1604) October 2015
Othello** 1604 (1598 – 1604) December 2015
King Lear** 1605 (1598 – 1606) March 2016
Macbeth** 1606 (1603 – 1611) June 2016
Antony and Cleopatra 1606 (1598 – 1608) August 2016
Timon of Athens 1606 (1598 – ?) November 2016
Pericles Prince of Tyre* 1607 (1598 – 1608) January 2017
Coriolanus 1608 (1598 – ?) March 2017
Cymbeline 1609 (1598 – 1611) May 2017
The Winter’s Tale* 1610 (1598 – 1611) July 2017
The Tempest** 1611 (1610 – 1611) September 2017

COMEDY | TRAGEDY | HISTORY
DARK COMEDY/PROBLEM PLAY
TRAGICOMEDY

Yeah, I’ve played around a little the with sequencing… but only to keep the tetralogies both in order and consecutive (for example, moving The Merry Wives of Windsor to after Henry V so the four histories are together).

Looking at it now, I’m wondering if I should have done something a little more ambitious–maybe a play every 10 days, so that it would wrap up in the course of a single year.

I need to slap myself around: that would be crazy, it would allow no time for real depth in reading (and certainly no time for any of you to follow along)… and I think it would cut WAY too much into family time (which is already at a premium… being a work-from-home dad means there’s very little boundary between home and office, and I spend way too much time “working” as it is).

No, the schedule looks ok…