Shakespeare's Heartbeat

Kelly Hunter is an award-winning actor, director, and educator. As a performer she has worked for over thirty years, notably with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the highly-acclaimed Vesturport. In 2001 she created her own company - Touchstone Shakespeare Theatre - to bring Shakespeare to children with little or no access to the arts. She ran the company for four years, during which time she directed Dreams and Voices, a film which documents her work with autistic children and is available on the Routledge Performance Archive. In 2014 she directed a production of The Tempest for children with autism, which performed in Stratford upon Avon and Columbus Ohio. The show was a co-production between the Royal Shakespeare Company and Ohio State University, where her work forms the basis of a longitudinal research study. This research engages the question of whether drama – particularly Shakespeare - can break through the communicative blocks of autism and in particular whether these sensory drama games, known collectively as the Hunter Heartbeat Method can produce long term benefits for children with ASD.

"For me – working in a special school – there is so much material here that is of huge benefit to children who struggle with social interaction. This should be on the shelf of every SEN teacher as there are activities here that would work on many levels for children both verbal and non-verbal, ASD or not." - Lucy Ellen Rix, Teaching Drama

• Foreword by Robin Post Introduction Playing the games/Using the book Part one A Midsummer Night’s DreamChapter 1 Games to begin Chapter 2 Fairyland Chapter 3 Dreams Chapter 4 The Mechanicals Chapter 5 The Lovers Chapter 6 Darkness of night Part two The Tempest Chapter 7 Caliban Chapter 8 Ariel Chapter 9 Miranda and Ferdinand Chapter 10 The clowns Chapter 11 Magic Chapter 12 Resource for playing with the children Afterword Epilogue by Marc Tasse