|
"O for a muse of fire that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention! A kingdom for a stage, princes to act, and monarchs to behold the swelling scene..." That's how Shakespeare's "Henry V" begins, and it's a rousing testimony to the power of imagination to sweep us to world's unknown. Shakespeare's plays have endured precisely because they evoke in us a tremendous response, and raise us to levels we never knew were possible. I'm a big fan of teaching Shakespeare in schools, and no, I'm not a sadist. Once the language barrier is overcome, his plays are a treasure trove of insights into human nature, the beauty of language, and the power of art to transform life into something even more true and "real" than our day to day reality. Shakespeare's not just for theater people, either. I remember my first two experiences with Shakespeare. My freshman English class read "Julius Caesar" out loud, and it was dreadful. No one could keep the characters straight, we couldn't pronounce half the words. The only thing tragic I saw about the play was that it didn't end after old Julius was stabbed in the back. It kept going and going and going... But that same year I went to see Peter Brooks' brilliant production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," performed in a "white box" empty stage, and it was breathtaking. It was absolutely hilarious. I remember ever moment of the production as if it was yesterday, and this was in 1972. What a difference. The words were secondary to the action and the characters. That's when I realized that trying to read a Shakespeare play cold is like picturing a mansion by looking at the blueprints. It takes special training and a lot of imagination, and at that point I just didn't have it, and didn't think I ever would. My next step in learning to appreciate Shakespeare was to go to the library and get Shakespeare's plays on audio tape (videos probably hadn't been invented yet!). I put the headphones on, pressed "PLAY" and followed along with the script. Great actors, speaking great lines. I was in heaven. There was a Shakespeare film festival a few years later, with some of the great performances including Zefferelli's "Romeo and Juliet," Olivier's "Hamlet," "Henry V" and "Othello," and even Roman Polanski's gruesome "Macbeth." Now that's the way to enjoy and learn to appreciate Shakespeare. During my college years the BBC produced a video series of all of Shakespeare's plays, and since then Kenneth Branagh has brought us his own "Henry V," "Love's Labour's Lost," "Hamlet" and "Much Ado About Nothing." We don't need to talk about Leonardo DiCaprio's unfortunate "Romeo and Juliet," do we? Also in college, I had a chance to be in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Taming of the Shrew," during which members of the Royal Shakespeare Company, including Patrick ("Star Trek") Stewart worked with us, teaching us basic textual analysis and how to walk and talk iambic pentameter. There's just no one else writing in the English language, before or since, who has matched Shakespeare's scope. We can learn a lot by studying the masters. When I taught Shakespeare, we never just read the text. We got up and walked through the scenes, watched videos and played through the scripts. Shakespeare is best appreciated from the inside out. | 
