Getting into Shakespeare: Part 4

Shakespeare is our Friend

Welcome back for the last week of the Getting into Shakespeare series! This final post is about how to make better friends with Shakespeare, now that we have some good strategies for tackling his works.

I find the best way to do this is by making Shakespeare goals. Actually, I just do a lot better at doing hard things that I really want to do (but have a tendency to forget about, and just get on facebook instead) if I make a goal.

Getting from this facebook...

...to this facebook.

So, my personal plan for hanging out with Shakespeare this year is to try to keep up with Shakespeare girl and read all of his works. I admit that I may "fail" spectacularly at this (I'm a little nervous about Titus Andronicus, which is coming right up), but even if I quit today, this goal has so far helped me read 5 plays I had never read before! This has really enriched my year, and it's only February. So, I call it a glorious success already. And thus you can see that goals, especially approached with a lot of self-forgiveness, are very helpful things.

Now, if you don’t want to read all of Shakespeare in one year, that’s fine. Your goal doesn't have to be identical to ours. You're a busy person - pick something a little smaller that fits into your life. Some examples I thought of for smaller goals might be:

"I will attempt to...

...watch my first Shakespeare movie this month.”

...find a well-reviewed Shakespeare production in my town to go see this season."

...read the play of a Shakespeare movie I’ve seen."

...read 10 of the most famous Shakespeare plays this year."

...watch and read two Shakespeare plays in the next two months.”

...read a Shakespeare play from a different genre than I’ve tried before” (like watching and reading Henry V, if you’ve only read Shakespeare’s comedies before, for example).

And as you go forward, remember, Shakespeare was NOT written for scholars. Poor people used to pay a penny - worth more in those days - to go *stand* in the muddy theater for hours and watch Shakespeare plays. Obviously, they weren't doing this to torture themselves.

This is the reproduction Globe Theatre in London, on the spot where many of Shakespeare's plays were performed. I went there once - I had a great time. But do you see the people standing in front of the stage? The Globe likes to keep an authentic renaissance flavor, so those people will have to keep standing up throughout the whole performance. It's true that instead of the mud that was in front of the stage in Shakespeare's day, there's now a nice cement pad that might be okay to sit on. But, if any of these people sit down, an attendant will come make them stand up. This is to punish them for having bought a slightly cheaper ticket.

I'm convinced that like countless others, you'll think Shakespeare is just great, if you can clear away a bit of the mists of time and get to see his works for what they really are. These plays were written and performed for everyone from peasants to royalty... to entertain us, to teach us about ourselves, others, and God - and to perhaps help us come away a bit better than we were before.

Oh, and if you happen to think of a really great getting-into-Shakespeare tip that wasn't featured in this series, feel free to comment or message me - I always like to learn more about how to learn more about Shakespeare. God speed you in your explorations!

Getting into Shakespeare: Part 3

Editors and English Professors are our Friends

Hey everyone, welcome back to the Getting Into Shakespeare Series! This week, it’s time for what we’ve all been waiting for - how do I actually READ Shakespeare? You might be thinking: I already know I can understand what’s going on if it’s acted out in front of me by professionals (as discussed in Part 1 and Part 2), but I want to read through Shakespeare in a year! Or, at least, read some Shakespeare, sometime. Maybe.

Well, you're in luck. Here’s the What Shall Shakespeare Say Today patented method for reading Shakespeare.

Step 1: Pick one of the Shakespeare movies I suggested in Part 1 of this series. Watch the movie at least once. This will not only help you understand the story, it will also help get the rhythm and grammatical style of Shakespearean English into your ear, and thence, into your brain. It's even better to watch it more than once, if you've got time (and if you love it, watch it as many times as you want! Let’s not talk about how many times Shakespeare girl and I have seen the movie of Twelfth Night...).

I concede that you can skip Step 1 if you want, and dive right into reading, but I find that method to be more difficult. An alternative to watching movies was suggested to me by my co-worker, Connor, who said to "get" Shakespeare, he downloads audio versions of Shakespeare plays from itunes and listens to them while he reads the plays. Apparently hearing it gives you some help in understanding the language, and allows you more leeway to imagine the scene than you would get from a movie. This might be a good thing to try and see if it works for you.

Step 2: Head to the library or the bookstore, and look for a book edition of the play you just watched (or downloaded from itunes).

Your friendly neighborhood library.

When you see all the Shakespeare editions on the shelves, examine them carefully before you take one home. The objective is to find a full-text version with some good footnotes and helpful explanations. These editions are usually edited by clever English professors who can help us a lot. I’ve had good success with both Yale and Norton versions of Shakespeare - they usually have a lot of word definitions and notes to explain obscure phrases or references. Shakespeare girl also recommends the Arden, Riverside, and Oxford editions.

These are the kinds of books that English professors themselves use when reading Shakespeare, so again, NO SHAME!!! The editors and professors have already put a lot of time into figuring out what the tricky words mean, so you don’t have to. Instead, you can concentrate on your new and dazzling insights.

Step 3: With your helpful edition in hand, and Shakespearean language in your ear, now try reading the play.

Don’t worry if you don’t move as fast as you normally do while reading the complete works of John Grisham or even Charles Dickens. Don’t even worry if you don’t understand everything. You will understand a lot. If you’ve done Step 1, and watched the movie, you will automatically know what’s going on much of the time (trust me, the lines make a lot more sense if you’ve got some context, and you’ve already heard Denzel Washington or Helena Bonham-Carter saying it!).

Of course, the written style of plays is pretty different from novels. But most of the differences are pretty self-apparent, so this is not something to fret over. The main thing to remember is that it's all written in dialogue with stage directions.

Here's an example of some dialogue:

GRUMIO:
Why then, the mustard without the beef.

KATHARINA:
Go, get thee gone, thou false deluding slave,

Beats him

That feed'st me with the
very name of meat:
Sorrow on thee and all the pack of you,
That triumph
thus upon my misery!
Go, get thee gone, I say.

Enter PETRUCHIO and HORTENSIO with meat

PETRUCHIO: How fares my Kate? What, sweeting, all amort?

A couple of things to note:

• The character’s name is just before what he or she says (you can't see it here, but sometimes the character's name is abbreviated).

• The stage directions are given in a very brief format, so you have to figure out who is doing the action based on the context - it doesn’t say “Katherine beats Grumio," it says “beats him.” The actual original Shakespeare texts contained very few stage directions (one of the only original ones is the famous "Exit pursued by a bear"), so these instructions can vary among editions.

• Words like “Enter” and “Exit” are put in front of the name of whoever is doing the entering or exiting. They are rarely correctly conjugated. They're just indications of movement.

• There are some tricky words. If you've followed Step 2, and are reading from a great edition, this should be okay. If you happened to read this page in the Norton edition, for example, the editor would have some definitions right on the page for you: "only the name" for "the very name," "sweetheart" for "sweeting," and "dejected" for "amort."

As an aside: lately I’ve been struck by the fact that when you read plays, you often have to imagine *how* all of the scenes happen. Comments on the character’s emotions or manner are very brief, if they’re noted at all. If the scene above were written in prose, it would probably go something like this:

Grumio slyly quipped, “Why then, the mustard without the beef.”
Katherine fixed him with a cold stare. Her disheveled appearance belied her status as lady of the house, but she would not be thus thwarted forever. “Go, get thee gone, thou false deluding slave,” was all she could spit out at first. Then, having lost her temper - and dignity - completely, she began to beat the hapless servant, shouting at the top of her lungs “That feed'st me with the very name of meat: Sorrow on thee and all the pack of you, that triumph thus upon my misery! Go, get thee gone, I say.”

At that very moment, Petruchio and Hortensio sauntered in placidly. There sat a large dish of delicious meat in Petruchio's hardened masculine hands, generally more apt to clench the sword than carry dainties. He viewed the scene with a concerned frown. His glance lingered on the lady he hoped would soon love him with her heart as well as hand. “How fares my Kate?” he inquired. “What, sweeting, all amort?”

Luckily, there is just no room for all of those adjectives in drama - adding emotion and style is often the actor’s rather than the writer’s job. So you get to use your imagination!

Ready? Have fun, and watch the movie again if necessary!

Getting Into Shakespeare: Part 2

Reviewers are our Friends

Time for part 2 of our series on Getting into Shakespeare! Last week we looked at how Shakespearean Movies are our Friends. But let's face it, just about everyone who wants to get into Shakespeare doesn't just want to watch movies. We all want to go to the theatre and see it happen live, before our very eyes!

Problem: it is sadly true that sometimes a director will get an attack of the Bizarre-Interpretations and thus occasionally Shakespeare plays are not fun. On the other hand, a good play can be a memorable and wonderful experience. You would love it! So I’m going to try to help you find a good one.

First: I’d very much recommend attending a live production, if there’s one in your town that has gotten good reviews.

If everyone else hates or loves a production, you probably will too, so before you plunk down your money, just go to google and type in the name of the play, your town and the word “review.” Helpful stuff will tend to pop up.

Read pretty carefully through what the reviewer says. Watch out for terms like “highly innovative,” “risque,” or “a new interpretation.” These usually mean that this production is designed for those who are already very familiar with the play, and that it will likely be a sort of spoof, or have a lot of atypical interpretations in the delivery of the lines. In other words, the production will probably be confusing.

I also think "confusing," when I read reviews telling me that the play is a “gender-bending” or "gender-blind casting" version. Given that Shakespeare often has women dressed up as men as a plot point, this can really add mental trauma to an otherwise lovely evening: “Wait - that’s a girl dressed up as a guy, who is really supposed to be just a guy. And that’s a girl dressed up as a guy who is now supposed to be a girl dressed up as a guy. And that’s a guy dressed up as a girl, who is supposed to be a girl. And that...” Honestly, I think Shakespeare already deals with gender issues a lot in his stories, so adding more can dilute the strength of some of those plot points, but I digress...

If the reviewer uses words like “traditional” or “classic,” that is a very good sign that it will be a pretty straight-shooting, comprehensible version. Try to go to such a show.

One tip: with a few exceptions, I’ve had fairly good luck with the Shakespeare in the Park productions in my locale. They’re usually fun shows designed to be understandable. And, because they're free productions at parks, the risk is low - if you don’t like it, have a picnic instead!

When you’ve found a promising show, if it's not Shakespeare in the Park, it may be expensive. So check the theatre's website or call to see if they have cheaper rush tickets. There are also often matinee or weeknight deals. Call the box office and ask what the cheapest tickets are.

Once you're safely at the theatre, remember that It’s normal to not understand what’s going on at the beginning of the play, so relax, and see how things unfold.

Read the program to check what characters are listed and where the scenes are supposed to be set. This helps keep track of who is who and where we are (I would not advise reading all of the actor bios in the back of the program during the show, like I tend to do).

You can also check the program for a plot synopsis. This can be a great way to be sure you will not be totally confused. If you want the end to be a surprise, you could try reading just the first half of the synopsis before the play starts, or even ignore it altogether (!).

Enjoy the show!

Next Time... Getting Into Shakespeare: Editors are our Friends

Getting Into Shakespeare: Part 1

Movies are our Friends

Have you ever tried to read Shakespeare, and found yourself bored or bogged down? Or did you spend so much time looking up words that you lost the train of the story? Fear not! This weekly series (I think it'll be 4 parts or so) is all about how Shakespeare CAN work for you.

First, an introduction. Hi there, I’m Emma, and my sister, Shakespeare girl, has invited me to be a guest contributor here. I have the best intentions to try to read through Shakespeare with her, but of course, “I know not what the success will be.” I’m an occasional poetry blogger.

Enough of me. Back to Shakespeare.



Getting into Shakespeare is easier if you have a buddy who’d like to dive in with you. Just like any play or movie, it’s more fun with two (or more). How else will you endlessly repeat all the lines from your favorite scenes? (Shakespeare girl: “I would I had bestowed that time in the tongues that I have in fencing, dancing and bear-baiting.” Emma: “O, had I but followed the arts!” All: ”Hahahaha!”). HOWEVER, even if you’re going alone, don’t worry. People have done it. And they didn’t even have whatshallshakespearesay.blogspot.com to help them. Amazing.

Now, a fact. Although the point of Shakespeare girl’s blog is to read through all of Shakespeare in one year, the truth is that many of us think that we might have trouble getting through even one play in a year.



Take heart! Shakespeare didn’t intend for his plays to become known as great works of written “literature,” so that everyone would have to read an incomprehensible bit of Elizabethan drama in high school or college. I personally disagree that Shakespeare is incomprehensible - it’s been understood for hundreds of years by millions of people - but some of my friends have been put off from reading his works because, for whatever reason, they didn’t understand it in English class. Tragic, right?

What’s often ignored is that Shakespeare wrote his plays to be WATCHED. HEARD. Experienced! And this is the basis of our first suggestion for those who find Shakespeare hard to get into: WATCH IT FIRST. Get one of the well-known movie versions of Shakespeare’s plays from your local library - depending on your mood, try maybe Kenneth Branagh’s Much Ado About Nothing (Romantic comedy. Excellent, but includes a little - ridiculously unnecessary - nudity, so keep the fastforward button handy) or Henry V (history! action! battle scenes!), Trevor Nunn’s Twelfth Night (this romance is probably my favorite), or Franco Zeffirelli’s Hamlet (psychological drama/tragedy - seriously, if you want to watch Hamlet, start with the Zeffirelli one. It’s just the best straight-up version to give you an understanding of the action of the play).

Remember, movie stars are not just fun to watch - their communication/interpretation abilities are why they’re famous, so taking advantage of their skills can really help us along in our quest to understand the Bard. Although English teachers often have a lot to offer, originally, Shakespeare’s works were meant to be interpreted by great actors and directors. So, there is NO SHAME in watching the movie before reading the play!!!!!

(Yes, that is Keanau Reeves, 3rd from left above. As Much Ado About Nothing's self-described "plain-dealing villain" he definitely needs some cheering up).

I’ll tell you right now that when you watch Shakespeare, you may not understand every single word. But you should be able to understand what’s going on. And when you see the scenes being acted out, it makes it easier to realize that Shakespeare is funny and lively and insightful. He creates characters that almost seem to breathe in their realness. He helps us understand ourselves and other people better, and can teach us to be more thankful, empathetic, and loving.

Up next week... Getting Into Shakespeare: Reviewers are our Friends