What sparked your interest in Shakespeare?

Perhaps the members of this group can introduce themselves so we can ignite the discussions on this day, April 23, Shakespeare's birthday. (It's a shame that this group has seen so little activity.)

I studied Shakespeare in high school and played and sang the part of Feste in Twelfth Night. I've been fascinated by the varieties of fools in the plays ever since. Six years ago, I decided to read Shakespeare's work in its entirety. I happened to have a Shakespeare-fiend for a friend, and we took turns reading the Sonnets to one another and asking questions. I love the English language, am an Anglophile, having studied in Britain for a year during college. Shakepeare is an excellent companion to Chinese history!

This repeated information from the Message Board, but I'm also hoping that this board will perk up. Thanks belleyang for kicking it in gear.

My first experience with Shakespeare was as a young girl watching Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet. It was so beautiful and unlike anything I had ever seen before. I remember sitting on my living room floor completely enthralled and knowing this was very special. Later after enduring some of the worst high school films of various productions, I saw a tape of Macbeth starring Philip Anglim and that started a life long obsession with Shakespeare and with that play in particular. I now work in the theater and have finally gotten the opportunity to work with a Shakespeare Rep company. I feel so lucky to be involved in such an active learning experience. I'm amazed how many new things I learn, even plays I thought I knew well.

My first experience with Shakespeare was Romeo and Juliet. I saw Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer (much too old for the roles). But I didn't know it then. One of my aunts saw me watching the movie and gave me a book Shakespeare for children (I don't remember the exact title). She read it with me and explained what I did not understand. It was wonderful. After we'd read the play and she'd explained it and answered my questions, we'd act out certain scenes. I have been hooked ever since.

high school shakespeare. of course, i'm talking 1956-1960 when a new york regents high school diploma was worth about the same as a B.A. is today from any state university. Frankly, I liked the language of Shakespeare as well as the plot/story of Macbeth, Hamlet, and the Merchant of Venice, the 3 we concentrated on. Thanks again to the late Mrs. Evelyn Magee, who did a superb job teaching English.

Branagh's 1993 film "Much Ado about nothing". Up to then I had seen one or two dramas on stage, in translated form, which didn't leave a lasting impression (I am in Germany, and Shakespeare is not part of the school curriculum). I just loved it, even though it was dubbed in German. Laughed a lot. I got the original version this year and it is even better.

Since then, I have grabbed every chance I got to see Shakespeare's plays or adaptations thereof. Last were "Othello" at the Globe in London this week, and I digged out my recording of a 2001 BBC(?) adaptation. Both had Eamonn Walker in the title role :-). I thought I was seeing things when he walked on stage!
I still have my problems with the Shakespearean English. I usually watch film adaptations with subtitles, and I brought along the play in a bilingual edition to the theatre!
We were close to tears in the end.

I read "Romeo and Juliet" in the 9th grade...and hated it. Then, we read "Macbeth" in 12th grade, and my teacher showed the Roman Polanski film version in class, and I was hooked. In college, I performed in two Shakespeare plays- as Siward in "Macbeth" and Sir Toby Belch in "Twelfth Night."

I was probably 9 years old when Franco Zefferelli's Romeo and Juliet came out. I was just becoming interested in romantic things, and was completely smitten. A few years later I got to be Lady MacDuff in high school.

In 1948, I saw Olivier's movie of Hamlet and was completely taken in by the sound of the words and was highly motivated to memorize and recite these.words.

I was subjected to the usual Shakespeare course in high school in the 1970s (never followed by a video as per today) and worked my way through a dry course on Macbeth, which I loved and hated at the same time.

However, in the past ten years our family has attended a Shakespeare summer production under tents on the beach in Vancouver called 'Bard on the Beach', which has ignited all my family's interest - including my son who started to go at 8 years.

I have taken to reading his superlative verse in small portions and also working my way through an interpretative audio presentation which has been really excellent. All the minutiae are bought to life, so I listen to the version with explanation (now even understand the many bawdy bits ). Then repeat without the commentary. Very enjoyable!

Listened to Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, MacBeth, Henry V so far. Romeo and Juliet has had three readings, and may get four.

I also realize that my school teachings did not 'translate' the meanings of the bawdy parts - I cannot remember how these parts were taught (probably not at all!!!)

Reading Hamlet in high school. I reread my copy so many times that the front and back covers fell off, it split in half and I had to tape the copy back together. Seeing the condition of the book at the end of the semester, my teacher told me to just keep the book. I still have it.

It was pop culture that introduced me to Shakespeare when I was a child---every egghead on television quoted plays to relate to any given situation. Star Trek also played into this on both television and the silver screen. So, it was the effect this one author had on litterally my world of entertainment growing up that drew me towards his works with an eventual grade-school report on "invented words by William Shakespeare".

It has a very postmodern way about it, don't you think?

;-)

At a time when I was having teen angst over what seemed to be forbidden love, Romeo & Juliet (assigned reading) resonated. Of course, the end made me think, "Well, I guess we don't have it THAT bad."

After that it was mostly stage productions with the costumes and everything, but with a twist: These archaicly over-dressed people (bound and restricted, it seemed to me) were saying such bawdy things.

Then in college, as an English Lit. major, I got serious about it and came to recognize his genius in every phrase.

I saw the Elizabeth Taylor Taming of the Shrew as a kid (probably age 10) and then we started reading Shakespeare in high school. My mom is an English student and teacher, so I'm sure her influence helped.

I'm now (five years post B.A.) ready to actually read Shakespeare. I guess I don't feel like those readings I did for class really should "count."

As I "unburdened crawl toward death." (King Lear, Act I, Scene 1, line 42), I continue to explore the many deeper existential meanings extant in nearly all of Shakespeare's literary pieces. We have multiple videos and DVDs of performances and interpretations, from Olivier, Mcklellan +Judi Dench, Jacoby, Branagh, Al Pacino, et al.; also there are excellent Teaching Company lecture series. When we first landed in this area, we could look forward to four free Shakespeare performances (in rotation) every summer, i.e. the Fort Worth Shakespeare in the Park and the Dallas Shakespeare Festival; unfortunately, the Fort Worth event, went "under" and the Dallas event is no longer free.

I was offered the opportunity to see "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in an outdoor theater last year. That's when my interest began. I am now reading "Romeo and Juliet" for school and I'm loving it.

My real interest in Shakespeare began after I purchased the Yale Shakespeare set, which I did because it was a good deal. Since I had the set, I decided to read them all and then I started to appreciate fully his writings and enjoy the plays enormously.

I got interested in Shakespeare when I was about 9 and was in a (modernized language, half-hour long) production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at school. It was pretty terrible, but I loved it.
I started with actual Shakespeare the next year, when I discovered the Young Shakespeare Players, a tiny local theatre company consisting of kids & teens. I've been in about 9 productions with them since then, and have been a nonstop actor, reader, movie watcher and doodley-fanartist of Shakespeare.

Because of the infirmaties of age, we are no longer able to venture away from our home. However, we do always troll the various media for DVDs of Shakespear stuff. I highly recomend: The Royal Shakespeare Company's "John Barton holds Master Classes" (a set of 4 DVDs); Acting Shakespeare--Ian McKellen; King Lear--Ian McKellen; Looking for Richard--Al Pacino. All of these should be available on Amazon.com.

Like so many, my school studies - this was in the early 'sixties - almost put me off Shakespeare for life (did they really think that Henry VIII was the one, of all his plays, to inspire a love of the Bard in young minds?). I was 'rescued' by the television. In the late '60s and '70s there were some excellent (or I so thought at the time, at least - it was a long time ago) Shakespeares on British telly. I fondly remember a Julius Caesar with a host of faces who later became well-known on British TV and at least three 'Dreams' (sadly, I've only ever been able to get hold of one of the those four and, ironically, I had to order that from the US).

Then came the dark cloud of the BBC Complete Shakespeare series in the late '70s, early '80s. That seemed to put Brit telly off Shakespeare for good - I can't, off-hand, remember any proper productions (as opposed to 'adaptations') since - but, too late, I was hooked, thankfully.

I suppose I should, in fairness, say that a handful in the BBC series were okay (invariably ones that Jonathan Miller had nothing to do with) and I'm quite fond of its As You Like It and Twelfth Night.

Try Twelfth Night (dvd) Amazon.com: Buy new: $14.98 $7.99 34 new from $6.79 4 used from $10.15

I've always been interested in Shakespeare, but what sparked my current interest was Eric Rasmussen's book, The Shakespeare thefts : stealing the world's most famous book.

I was disappointed in the book and wrote a negative review..

Writing the review led me to write about J.O. Halliwell-Phillipps in a blog post.

And a comment to the blog post led me to some Shakespearian research that was enjoyable and which led to yet another blog post.

For Christmas, I just received Christopher Plummer's Hamlet (DVD); This was a much better performance of Hamlet than Derek Jacobi's which I had heretofore felt was the best); however only Kenneth Branagh's gives the complete "uncut Hamlet" performance . Not only is Plummer's one pf the best that I have seen, but several of the other actor's roles were outstanding as well, e.g. Polonius and Claudius. Of course, this was a much younger Christopher Plummer than his eighty-year old portrayal of Leo Tolstoy, in The Last Station, with Helen Mirren as Sophia.

For me, Shakespeare rejuvenates my interest in language. I read King Lear again lately and noticed the layers of richness in the monologues that left me dizzy.

Discovering Hamlet, DVD (with much younger Derek Jacobi and Kenneth Branagh) I just found that it is now available from Amazon.com (3 used from $21.55).

Oh, I did not visit this chat until now, but so enjoyed reading all your "stories". Even though I had seen some plays before, my first revelation was Zeffereli´s Romeo and Juliet, I must have been 15, and I have never cried so much all my life. I have since tried to see all Shakespeare´s plays, and his Collected Works were one of the first books I have bought.

Reviving a really oldie, but goodie!

I was "forced" to read Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth in high school--the readings really did nothing for me.

One year I had to teach English 11 (17 year olds) and Julius Caesar was a requirement. I was determined to make it a better experience for my students than I had. I prepared to the max! I read about 5 versions of Julius Caesar, brushed up on my history of same (I taught/teach "Modern" (post Renaissance). It was this process of preparing to teach this work of Shakespeare in which I came to love it!

I started out by having students research the original Globe and reconstruct it via a model. It was a competition--I had two classes--the "winners" (as determined by other staff members) would get a free pizza lunch on me! The models were stunning and much thought went into them. There was a caveat--no more than a TOTAL of $10 could be spent on the making of the globe--they had to repurpose materials they already had.

Once the Globe was settled we read a very short (3-4 pages) history of Shakespeare and took a look at the time period--specifically England but also around the world.

Once we began reading students were permitted to bring whatever they wanted to wear to class that day (togas, laurel vines, (green vines from Hobby Lobby!) leather sandals (most put on flip flops) and were permitted to being food of the time period--most brought grapes and grape juice, some brought rustic loaves of bread with cheese. One day a really creative student brought in oatmeal (porridge)--although it was instant, I permitted it as we couldn't cook. One day a student brought in 2 chicken pies baked by his mother--we pretended they were partridge. I only gave the students 3 minutes to don costumes each day and only 2 minutes to return themselves to appropriate school attire. About 75% of the students participated regularly in dress. Of course, some of the togas were pink, paisley, etc; whatever sheet they could get from their mom's linen closet or off their bed. Those were good times!

As to the reading, each student had to read a part weekly. They also had to keep journals, and these are basically how they earned their grade. MWF were "free writing" days, commenting on parts of the play we had read, some revelation, etc. TR were in response to questions that I would pose--mostly Socratic in nature.

Back in the day (1990), we were permitted to bring in plastic knives/swords, so the stabbing of Caesar was Oscar worthy. Most brought in plastic table cutlery.

For bonus points, the students could make a movie poster of Julius Caesar using current actors/actresses (1999) and they chose such people as Henry Winkler, Bruce Willis, Julia Roberts, Matt Damon, Nicolas Cage, and George Clooney.

I only taught English 11 for one year, but it was a great year! I was certified to teach Social Studies in grades 7-12 (12-18 years). However, in my State, a certified teacher can teach outside their area of certification if the school is unable to find a certified teacher in that area. Since they could not find a person to teach only 2 periods a day (33%), they asked me and since I already taught History 11, I already knew the students. I wish I could have tied the English to the history--but then History 11 was American History, so unable to do so.

The students, as well as myself, were sad when we finished. They wanted to do another Shakespeare play. Sadly, we could not do that. I still often see students in the community (I've retired from teaching high school) and they still comment on that class when they see me.

>28 Tess_W: I had a non-Shakespeare experience in high school (10th grade, I think) that relates to your story. It was an American history class. We were assigned to read a biography of one of our founding fathers and write a report about it. I chose Patrick Henry, and though I was fascinated by his life story, my report was uninspired to say the least. I got a "C" grade. Then the teacher offered us the opportunity to raise our grade one level if we chose to give an oral presentation to the class. I opted to do it.

I quickly discovered that preparing to give a speech to the class--up front and personal--was vastly different than writing a book report. I spent a much greater amount of time going back and forth through the book than I had in reading it originally to decide what to say and how to say it--memorized, of course. I must have had a bit of a dramatic flair, because I recruited a couple of the other students to shout "treason" at me at a certain point of my presentation, corresponding to an event in Henry's life. All went well, and to my surprise and gratification, the teacher raised my grade all the way to an "A".

The event wasn't just memorable; it taught me a lot about how to study that benefited me a quite bit in succeeding years. I can appreciate why your experience teaching of Shakespeare that way was so well received by your students.

>29 Podras.: Glad you enjoyed it--sound's wonderful!