While he is open, he is also demanding. Greenblatt assumes students have read the plays and launches directly into analysis. This isn't a core, after all.

"Greenblatt's course has more required background--reading literary criticism--about the plays," Dodge says. "I think Garber's class just reads the plays themselves...and Garber also does more plays so she does not go as in-depth."

In part, that's because Greenblatt's students are more interested in digging deep.

"Everyone in Professor Greenblatt's class is truly interested in delving deep into the world of Shakespeare instead of receiving a surface level study," McGee says.

"Professor Greenblatt's class is much smaller, obviously more interactive, and more tuned for people who have been studying English as a major," says Deborah Kory '95, who is enrolled in both classes. "Greenblatt is more... improvisational... and he tends to be at least thus far a little more esoteric."

Still, during the four years he has taught off-and-on at Harvard, Greenblatt says he has tried to do less performing in class and more in-depth discussion.

"One thing I have learned in the four years I have been teaching at Harvard is that I have an enormous amount to learn from the students," Greenblatt says.

Garber

Garber, on the other hand, has to perform. She has more than 500 people to entertain in Sanders Theatre on Mondays and Wednesdays at 11 a.m.

This Wednesday, Garber, who is professor of English, stood on the stage dressed almost completely in black, including her stocking and high heels. A teaching fellow wrote a list of terms on the blackboard behind her.

Garber's lecture focuses on what was "natural and unnatural" about Richard III. She repeatedly refers to the plot of the play, and reads and acts out scenes from behind the podium.

While reading scenes, she speaks slowly, her voice rising and falling depending on the speeches, her hands moving wildly to add emphasis. She talks faster while lecturing, and approaches the end of the hour with an analysis of "the breakdown of Richard's character."

"She is very concerned that students view the plays not just as written text but as living pieces of performance," says Shelley Salamensky, a teaching fellow in the course. "In a sense it is theater--her lecture style is extremely entertaining as well as informative and in quoting passages from Shakespeare, she also performs them superbly."

At the end of lecture, the crowd in Sanders gives her a brief but loud round of applause.

"I would say I like being in Marge Garber's class because I find her inspirational," Kory says. "There aren't very many women at Harvard teaching those 'hear me roar' classes in Sanders Theatre."