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| Director Michael Attenborough |
If I had a magic wand, on my list of things to demand would be that every senior student be taken to see a live production of a Shakespeare. (Yes this would be expensive and impractical blah, blah, blah but remember I'm talking magic wand not official policy). Further, because this is magical not educational there would no requirement for any learning outcome to come out of the experience. No-one would be required (in fact allowed) to write an analysis, or a review or a synopsis or anything else out of the experience. All they would be required to do is try to like it or say why they didn't in a sentence or so ("just didn't" or "boring" are not sentences). The thing is for years I thought I hated Shakespeare. The senior English experience did this for me. Now I am just so excited to be seeing the Scottish Play on Saturday and was chuffed to be included in a behind the scenes look at the stage and to meet the director and a couple of the stars this afternoon.
I think to love Shakespeare you need to
1) see it performed live and
2) do it just for the sake of it
This is not to say students of English or drama shouldn't study The Bard. Of course they should. But if we could just get them to love, or at least like, or at least not hate Shakespeare before they ever open a copy of the play or write the first paragraph of an essay entitled Why Shakespeare is still relevant today? you've got a much better chance of them doing so with an open mind.
It rather fills my heart with joy that when I see The Scottish Play on Saturday I will be accompanied by three teenagers - not one there under duress. (I don't even think I enticed them by saying that with all the violence it was rather like
Game of Thrones ... Funnily enough. That's a series I do find boring)
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| Jai Bofinger one of the child stars |
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| Jason Klarwein as Macbeth |
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